artesunate – F.I.G.H.T for your health! http://lymebook.com/fight Linda Heming describes her Lyme disease healing journey Wed, 06 Nov 2013 05:54:37 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.25 Antiviral Activities of Artemisinin, Artesunate http://lymebook.com/fight/antiviral-activities-of-artemisinin-artesunate/ http://lymebook.com/fight/antiviral-activities-of-artemisinin-artesunate/#respond Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:29:05 +0000 http://lymebook.com/fight/?p=677 Traditional Chinese medicine commands a unique position among all traditional medicines because of its 5000 years of history. Our own interest in natural products from traditional Chinese medicine was triggered in the 1990s, by artemisinin‐type sesquiterpene lactones from Artemisia annua L. As demonstrated in recent years, this class of compounds has activity against malaria, cancer cells, and schistosomiasis. Interestingly, the bioactivity of artemisinin and its semisynthetic derivative artesunate is even broader and includes the inhibition of certain viruses, such as human cytomegalovirus and other members of the Herpesviridae family (e.g., herpes simplex virus type 1 and Epstein‐Barr virus), hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and bovine viral diarrhea virus. Analysis of the complete profile of the pharmacological activities and molecular modes of action of artemisinin and artesunate and their performance in clinical trials will further elucidate the full antimicrobial potential of these versatile pharmacological tools from nature.

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/591195?cookieSet=1
 
Clinical Infectious Diseases 2008;47:804–811

© 2008 by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved.
1058-4838/2008/4706-0011$15.00
DOI: 10.1086/591195
REVIEW ARTICLE

The Antiviral Activities of Artemisinin and Artesunate

Thomas Efferth,1

Marta R. Romero,3,5

Dana G. Wolf,4

Thomas Stamminger,2

Jose J. G. Marin,5 and

Manfred Marschall2

1German Cancer Research Center, Pharmaceutical Biology, Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, Heidelberg, and 2Virological Institute of the University Hospital Erlangen, Clinical and Molecular Virology, University of Erlangen, Nuremberg, Germany; 3Medical Research Council Clinical Science Center, Hammersmith Campus, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom; 4Hadassah University Hospital, Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Jerusalem, Israel; and 5University of Salamanca, Laboratory of Experimental Hepatology and Drug Targeting, CIOBERehd, Salamanca, Spain

Received 4 February 2008; accepted 10 May 2008; electronically published 12 August 2008.

Reprints or correspondence: Dr. Thomas Efferth, German Cancer Research Center, Pharmaceutical Biology (C015), Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany ().
]]> http://lymebook.com/fight/antiviral-activities-of-artemisinin-artesunate/feed/ 0 Artemisinin-Resistant Malaria Detected in Western Cambodia http://lymebook.com/fight/artemisinin-resistant-malaria-detected-in-western-cambodia/ http://lymebook.com/fight/artemisinin-resistant-malaria-detected-in-western-cambodia/#respond Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:13:29 +0000 http://lymebook.com/fight/?p=484 NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Jul 29 – New research indicates that artemisinin resistance among Plasmodium falciparum isolates is common in western Cambodia and that in vitro testing may give false results.

Findings from another study indicate that inoculation of intact sporozoites can induce protection against malaria challenge. Both studies are reported in The New England Journal of Medicine for July 30.

Recent research suggests that artemisinin-based therapies are losing their efficacy against falciparum malaria on the Thai-Cambodian border, a site where antimalarial-drug resistance has been described in the past.

In the first study, Dr. Arjen M. Dondorp, from Mahidol University, Bangkok, and colleagues assessed the response to artesunate with or without mefloquine in 40 patients living in western Cambodia and 40 in northwestern Thailand.

The time to parasitic clearance was significantly longer in the Cambodian patients: 84 vs. 48 hours in Thai patients (p < 0.001). In vitro testing, however, did not show reduced sensitivity to artesunate.

“Measures for containment are now urgently needed to limit the spread of these parasites from western Cambodia and to prevent a major threat to current plans for eliminating malaria,” the authors conclude.

In the second study, Dr. Robert Sauerwein, from Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and colleagues examined sporozoite inoculation, via mosquito bite, as a means of inducing immunity against malaria.

Ten healthy subjects received bites from infected mosquitos (vaccine group) and 5 received bites from uninfected mosquitos (control group), once a month for 3 months. Chloroquine prophylaxis was given to both groups during this immunization phase. One month after stopping chloroquine, all of the subjects underwent malaria challenge with mosquitos infected with P. falciparum.

The subjects in the vaccine group were fully protected against malaria challenge, whereas all subjects in the control group developed parasitemia. No serious adverse events were seen in either group.

Although the described study protocol does not represent a vaccine strategy that can be widely implemented, “the induction of sterile protection against a homologous malaria challenge suggests that the concept of a whole-parasite malaria vaccine warrants further consideration,” the authors conclude.
N Engl J Med 2009;361:455-477.

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