Advances in malaria pharmacology and the online guide to MALARIA PHARMACOLOGY: IUPHAR review 38

Antimalarial drug discovery has until recently been driven by high-throughput phenotypic cellular screening, allowing millions of compounds to be assayed and delivering clinical drug candidates. In this review, we will focus on target-based approaches, describing recent advances in our understanding of druggable targets in the malaria parasite. Targeting multiple stages of the Plasmodium lifecycle, rather than just the clinically symptomatic asexual blood stage, has become a requirement for new antimalarial medicines, and we link pharmacological data clearly to the parasite stages to which it applies. Finally, we highlight the IUPHAR/MMV Guide to MALARIA PHARMACOLOGY, a web resource developed for the malaria research community that provides open and optimized access to published data on malaria pharmacology.

Automated summary

Anti-malarial drug discovery has traditionally relied on high-throughput phenotypic cellular screening. However, recent advances in understanding druggable targets in the malaria parasite have shifted the focus to target-based approaches. Targeting multiple stages of the parasite lifecycle and linking pharmacological data to specific parasite stages is crucial for developing new anti-malarial medicines. Additionally, the IUPHAR/MMV Guide to MALARIA PHARMACOLOGY provides a valuable web resource for the malaria research community to access published data on malaria pharmacology.