Artemisinin-resistant malaria has emerged in Africa

Leann Tilley, a biochemist at the University of Melbourne in Australia, who studies the molecular basis of anti-malaria resistance, said: “We have been expecting and worrying about this for a long time

There have been signs of drug resistance in Africa for a long time: For example, between 2012 and 2015, scientists discovered genetic mutations associated with resistance to malaria parasites in Rwanda

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The "gold standard" treatment for malaria-a family of drugs that includes artemisinin and its derivatives-is often used in conjunction with the "partner" drugs in so-called artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) because multiple drugs are more effective.

At the beginning of the 21st century, Cambodia showed the first signs of resistance to artemisinin and its relatives

Tilley said that the drug resistance currently suffered in Africa is particularly severe

"This is certainly a worrying finding because we are totally dependent on these artemisinin combination therapies," Arjen Dondorp said

Clinical confidence

In this study conducted in Uganda from 2017 to 2019, researchers treated 240 malaria patients by giving them intravenous injections of artemisinate (an effective artemisinin derivative) three times a day.

The research team found that for 14 participants, it took more than 5 hours to remove half of the malaria-causing parasite (P.

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Although this mutation has been detected in malaria parasites in Africa, Toshihiro Mita, a parasitologist at Junfuji University in Tokyo and a co-author of the study, said: "We don’t know whether these parasites are actually drugs for humans.

This April study reported the results of a three-day ACT drug treatment for children with malaria in Rwanda

"An important wake-up call"

Philip Rosenthal, an infectious disease clinician at the University of California, San Francisco, explained that at present, the clinical consequences of artemisinin resistance appear to be few

Nonetheless, Rosenthal said, these findings are a "major alarm": If resistance continues to spread, as expected, the parasites become resistant to haloperidine, the results could be catastrophic

However, resistance may not spread as quickly as in Southeast Asia

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Nevertheless, scientists are still very nervous-they continue to be shocked by the failure of chloroquine, which is an antimalarial drug.

Pascal Ringwald said that although the WHO has launched an active campaign to eliminate drug-resistant parasites in Southeast Asia through the rapid deployment of artemisinin-based combination therapies in affected individuals, it is considered that the disease is in The degree of spread in sub-Saharan Africa is unrealistic in the same way

Ringwald said that this study puts more pressure on researchers and drugmakers to find another viable treatment or vaccine for malaria in case there is more evidence of artemisinin-based combination therapies.
It will fail in the future
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Several malaria vaccines are under development, one of which showed promising results in a small clinical trial earlier this year
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However, the new choice will not come too soon
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"I will see more reports of artemisinin-resistant strains in the next few years," Ringwald said, "because they have emerged like mushrooms
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