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INTRODUCTION OF ANTIMALARIAL DRUGS & TREATMENT OF MALARIA (FOR P. FALCIPARUM)

 

INTRODUCTION OF ANTIMALARIAL DRUGS


Antimalarial drugs are used to prevent and treat malaria. It is anti-parasitic chemical agent. Most antimalarial drugs target is the erythrocytic stage of malaria infection.

 As we have studied about different types of species of malaria parasite, so for kill that all the species or treatment there are so many drugs are available in the market.

Antimalarial drugs can be classified on the basis of chemical structure and mechanism of action which is given below.


CLASSIFICATION






  1. Chemical structure                                 
  2. Mechanism of action

 

1.    ACCORDING TO CHEMICAL STRUCTURE

Chemical class

Drugs name (generic name)

4-Aminoquinolines

Chloroquine, Amodiaquine, Piperaquine

Quinolone-Methanol

Mefloquine

Cinchona Alkaloid

Quinine,Quinidine

Biguanide

Proguanil (Chloroguanide)

Diaminopyramidines

Pyrimethamine

8-Aminoquinolines

Primaquine And Tafenoquine

Sulphonamide/Sulfone

Sulfadoxine, Sulfamethopyrazine, Dapsone

Antibiotics

Doxycycline, Clindamycin

Sesquiterpene-Lactones

Artesunate, Artemether, Arteether,Dihydroartemisinim, Arterolane

Amino-Alcohols

Halofantrine, Lumefantrine

Naphthoquinone

Atovaquone, Pyronaridine

Nephthyridine

Pyronaridine

 

ACCORDING TO MECHANISM ACTION

CONDITION

TREATMENT

Casual prophylactics (primary tissues schizonticides which destroy parasite in liver cells and prevent invasion of erythrocyte)

Primaquine, pyrimethamine

Blood schizonticides- (suppressive, destroy parasites in RBC and terminal attack of malaria)

Chloroquine, quinine, artemisin and derivatives, mefloquine, halofantrine, pyrimethamine, atovaqunone, chloroguanide

Tissue schizonticides – used to prevent relapse (hypnozoitocidal) drug act on hypnozoits of plasmodium vivax and plasmodium ovale that cause relapse)

Primaquine, tefenoquine

Radical curative – (eradicate all forms of plasmodium vivax and plasmodium ovale that cause relapse)

Blood schizonticides + hynozoitocidal

Gametocidal drugs – (destroy gametocytes and prevent transmission)

Primaquine, chloroquine, quinine

 

So many drugs are available in the market as u can see above in the table. As we know in India so many companies that manufacture antimalarial drugs and give economically support to India.

 

TREATMENT OF MALARIA (for P. falciparum)


Treatment aims to eliminate the Plasmodium parasite from the bloodstream. When infected mosquito bites us, plasmodium parasite enter our bloodstream and destroy oxygen carrying red blood cells. And we feel sick within days or weeks.

But sometimes patients do have the idea about he is infected from malaria and a delay in treatment can lead to death. Early tests give you the best shot at recovery.

There are various way of treatment as given below.

1.    Thick and thin blood smears : thick blood smear test is most useful for detecting the presence of parasites, because they examine a large sample of blood.

2.    Rapid diagnostic test (RDT) : it is an alternate way of quickly established the diagnosis of malaria infection by detecting specific malaria antigens in a person’s blood. It gives fast result. RDT is not available everywhere.

3.    Molecular test : it is also called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, it can identify the types of parasite, which helps doctor decide which drugs to prescribe. 

4.    Antibody test : This is use to find out if you’ve had malaria in the past. It detects antibodies that show up in blood after an infection.

5.    Drug resistance test: some malaria parasite are resistance to drugs. But doctors can test your blood to see if certain drugs will work.


When you are infected from malaria disease, then you need to test of malaria as mentioned above testes. According to the test, doctors tell you from which species of plasmodium are you affected and give you medicine and start to treatment accordingly.


TREATMENT

Malaria is treated with prescription drugs to kill the parasite. Which drugs doctor will provide us and the length of treatment will vary, depending on:

Ø Which type of malaria parasite you have

Ø The severity of your symptoms

Ø Patients age

Ø Whether you’re pregnant

 

MEDICATION

There are many antimalarial drugs as treatment or medication in which the most common antimalarial drugs include:

·      Chloroquine phosphate: indicated for acute attacks of malaria due to P. vivax, P. malariae, P. ovale, and susceptible strains of P. falciparum.

Side effects : headache, nausea, loss of appetite, stomach pain, etc..

·     Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs): ACT is a combination of two or more drugs that works against malaria parasite in different ways. This is usually

·      preferred treatment for chloroquine resistant malaria. Examples include

  •  artemether-lumefantrine (coartem
  •  artesunate-mefloquine.
  •  Artesunate-sulfadouine-pyrimethamine

Side effects: skin rash, nausea, vomiting, tremors, liver issues, etc.

Other common antimalarial drugs are

  •  Atovaquone-proguanil (Malarone)
  • Quinine sulphate (Qualaquin) with doxycycline (Oracea, vibramycin, others) 
  • Primaquine phosphate

In pharmaceutical industries, there so many drugs is manufactured for malaria parasite disease. One of them the combination of artemether and lumefantrine (coartem) drug  is used to treat against plasmodium falciparum parasite.

All pharmaceutical industries have their own manufactured drug’s name but drugs contain same content. Artemether and lumefantrine is a derivatives of artemisinin drug.


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