Combination Therapy Strategies for the Treatment of Malaria

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 24; no. 19; p. 3601
• Main Authors: Alven, Sibusiso, Aderibigbe, Blessing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 07.10.2019; MDPI
• Subjects: antimalarial drugs; Antimalarials - chemistry; Antimalarials - therapeutic use; Antimalarials - toxicity; Bioavailability; Chemical compounds; combination therapy; Dendrimers - chemistry; Disease; Drug Carriers - chemistry; Drug Resistance; Drug Therapy, Combination; Humans; hybrid compounds; Hybridization; Liposomes - chemistry; Malaria; Malaria - drug therapy; Micelles; Mosquitoes; Nanocapsules; Parasites; Pharmacology; Pharmacophores; polymer-based carriers; Polymers; Review; Toxicity; Vector-borne diseases; Water pollution effects; combination therapy; polymer-based carriers; antimalarial drugs; malaria; hybrid compounds
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules24193601

Malaria is a vector- and blood-borne infection that is responsible for a large number of deaths around the world. Most of the currently used antimalarial therapeutics suffer from drug resistance. The other limitations associated with the currently used antimalarial drugs are poor drug bioavailability, drug toxicity, and poor water solubility. Combination therapy is one of the best approaches that is currently used to treat malaria, whereby two or more therapeutic agents are combined. Different combination therapy strategies are used to overcome the aforementioned limitations. This review article reports two strategies of combination therapy; the incorporation of two or more antimalarials into polymer-based carriers and hybrid compounds designed by hybridization of two antimalarial pharmacophores.