Artemisinins: mechanisms of action and potential for resistance

Artemisinins form the most important class of antimalarial currently available, particularly because they are effective against parasites resistant to almost all the other classes. Their mechanism of action is controversial. Some aspects of this controversy are reviewed here. Whilst there is no clinical resistance yet identified to artemisinins, the potential to examine the relationship between polymorphisms in PfATP6 (a target of artemisinins) in multidrug resistant isolates of Plasmodium falciparum, is also discussed. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.