Drug resistance in malaria

Antimalarial chemotherapy is an important component of all malaria control programmes throughout the world. This is especially so in light of the fact that there are no antimalarial vaccines which are available for clinical use at present. Emergence and spread of malaria parasites which are resistant to many of the available antimalarials today is, therefore, a major cause for concern. Till date, resistance to all groups of antimalarials excluding artemisinin has been reported. In recent years, in vitro resistance to even artemisinin has been described. While resistance to antibacterial agents has come to prominence as a clinical problem in recent years, antiparasitic resistance in general and antimalarial resistance in particular has not received much attention, especially in the Indian scenario. The present review deals with commonly used antimalarial drugs and the mechanisms of resistance to them. Various methods of detecting antimalarial resistance and avoiding the same have also been dealt with. Newer parasite targets which can be used in developing newer antimalarial agents and antimalarials obtained from plants have also been mentioned.

Keywords
Artemisinin, antimalarial resistance, combination therapy, molecular markers, Plasmodium falciparum