A novel multiple-stage antimalarial agent that inhibits protein synthesis

Ian Gilbert’s team of researchers have published a paper “A novel multiple-stage antimalarial agent that inhibits protein synthesis” in Nature (522 page 315–320; doi:10.1038/nature14451). Malaria is a major problem in many areas of the world and it is estimated that about 200 million cases of malaria every year and over half a million deaths. The properties of compound DDD107498 are particularly exciting as not only does it have potential for treating malaria with a single dose, it may also prevent the spread of malaria from infected people and it has shown potential to prevent people developing malaria in the first place.

The malaria DDU team has won the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) Project of the Year twice. They won the 2014 Project of the Year award for the discovery of the compound DDD107498 and the 2018 Project of the Year award for their recent work on discovering potential new drugs for malaria.