Table 3 Priorities – attacking artemisinin resistance
From: CRIMALDDI: a prioritized research agenda to expedite the discovery of new anti-malarial drugs
Important quick wins | • Establish a clear definition of artemisinin “resistance”, stemming from a clinical observation of increased treatment failure and parasite clearance times. Include a broad profile of how resistance manifests itself, such as the window of parasite killing across the 48-hr erythrocytic cycle and correlation of PCT with the experimental in vitro parameters |
• Greatly improve access to resistant parasites in order to broaden as far as possible groups able to work on resistance | |
Removing key roadblocks to future progress | • Define the molecular and cellular basis of artemisinin-induced dormancy and develop easier to measure markers of dormancy and/or reduced susceptibility |
• Identify discriminatory phenotypes by systematic re‒evaluation all of the in vitro assays available | |
Speeding-up drug discovery | • Establish stable resistant parasite lines to improve access and broaden number of groups able to study resistance mechanisms |
• Identify and evaluate an appropriate range of “omic” approaches to search for discriminatory tools and markers of artemisinin resistance |