Uzor Philip F
Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, University of Nigeria, 410001 Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020 Feb 12;2020:8749083. doi: 10.1155/2020/8749083. eCollection 2020.
Malaria is one of the major health problems in developing countries. The disease kills a large number of people every year and also affects financial status of many countries. Resistance of the plasmodium parasite, the causative agent, to the existing drugs, including chloroquine, mefloquine, and artemisinin based combination therapy (ACT), is a serious global issue in malaria treatment and control. This warrants an urgent quest for novel compounds, particularly from natural sources such as medicinal plants. Alkaloids have over the years been recognized as important phytoconstituents with interesting biological properties. In fact, the first successful antimalarial drug was quinine, an alkaloid, which was extracted from Cinchona tree. In the present review work, the alkaloids isolated and reported recently (2013 till 2019) to possess antimalarial activity are presented. Several classes of alkaloids, including terpenoidal, indole, bisindole, quinolone, and isoquinoline alkaloids, were identified with a promising antimalarial activity. It is hoped that the reports of the review work will spur further research into the structural modification and/or development of the interesting compounds as novel antimalarial drugs.
疟疾是发展中国家主要的健康问题之一。这种疾病每年导致大量人口死亡，还影响许多国家的财政状况。疟原虫这一致病病原体对现有药物（包括氯喹、甲氟喹和青蒿素联合疗法）产生耐药性，是疟疾治疗和控制中一个严重的全球性问题。这就迫切需要寻找新型化合物，特别是从药用植物等天然来源中寻找。多年来，生物碱一直被认为是具有有趣生物学特性的重要植物成分。事实上，第一种成功的抗疟药物奎宁就是一种生物碱，它是从金鸡纳树中提取的。在本综述工作中，介绍了最近（2013年至2019年）分离并报道具有抗疟活性的生物碱。已鉴定出几类生物碱，包括萜类、吲哚、双吲哚、喹诺酮和异喹啉生物碱，它们具有有前景的抗疟活性。希望本综述工作的报道将推动对这些有趣化合物进行结构修饰和/或开发成为新型抗疟药物的进一步研究。
