Researchers at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD) have cured malaria-infected mice with single shots of a new series of potent, long-lasting synthetic drugs modeled on an ancient Chinese herbal folk remedy. The drugs mimic artemisinin, the active agent in a Chinese herbal drug used to treat malaria and other fevers for thousands of years. Artemisinin comes from the Artemisia annua plant.
“These peroxide compounds promise not only to be more effective than today's best malaria remedies, but also potentially safer and more efficient,” said research team leader Gary Posner, Scowe Professor of Chemistry in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins. The oxygen-oxygen unit in the peroxides causes malaria parasites to self-destruct.
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