Fungal Metabolite Asperaculane B Inhibits Malaria Infection and Transmission.

Molecules

Department of Biological Sciences, Biomolecular Sciences Institute, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA.

Published: July 2020

Mosquito-transmitted parasites cause millions of people worldwide to suffer malaria every year. Drug-resistant parasites and insecticide-resistant mosquitoes make malaria hard to control. Thus, the next generation of antimalarial drugs that inhibit malaria infection and transmission are needed. We screened our Global Fungal Extract Library (GFEL) and obtained a candidate that completely inhibited transmission to . The candidate fungal strain was determined as . The bioactive compound was purified and identified as asperaculane B. The concentration of 50% inhibition on transmission (IC) is 7.89 µM. Notably, asperaculane B also inhibited the development of asexual with IC of 3 µM, and it is nontoxic to human cells. Therefore, asperaculane B is a new dual-functional antimalarial lead that has the potential to treat malaria and block malaria transmission.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7412362PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules25133018DOI Listing

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