Transporters involved in resistance to antimalarial drugs

Complex dynamics and stability of resistance to antimalarial drugs.

A succession of antimalarial drugs has been deployed to treat human falciparum malaria but each has, in turn, been nullified by the spread of drug resistance. The consensus view has always been that, once present, resistance will inevitably rapidly increase to 100%. However, recent field evidence has shown this is not inevitable, and that drug resistance may initially spread and then stabilize ...

Superinfection and the evolution of resistance to antimalarial drugs.

A major issue in the control of malaria is the evolution of drug resistance. Ecological theory has demonstrated that pathogen superinfection and the resulting within-host competition influences the evolution of specific traits. Individuals infected with Plasmodium falciparum are consistently infected by multiple parasites; however, while this probably alters the dynamics of resistance evolution...

ABC transporters involved in drug resistance in human parasites.

The ABC (ATP-binding cassette) protein superfamily is a ubiquitous and functionally versatile family of proteins that is conserved from archaea to humans. In eukaryotes, most of these proteins are implicated in the transport of a variety of molecules across cellular membranes, whereas the remaining ones are involved in biological processes unrelated to transport. The biological functions of sev...

How to tackle antimalarial resistance?

L ife has a prodigious capacity to overcome death, and this is exactly emblematic of drug resistance, one of the biggest threats for health systems, clinicians, researchers and patients. Several decades of intense and innovative drug discovery and development were not able to prevent the loss of medicines owing to resistance among viruses, bacteria and parasites. The common denominator to drug ...

Effectiveness of antimalarial drugs.