Developing Artemisia annua L. for the production of artemisinin to treat multi-drug resistant malaria

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorArroo, R. R. J.
dc.date.acceptance2023-09-19
dc.date.accessioned2023-09-28T13:38:43Z
dc.date.available2023-09-28T13:38:43Z
dc.date.issued2023-09-19
dc.description.abstractSweet wormwood (Artemisia annua L.) is the commercial source of the sesquiterpene compound artemisinin – the key ingredient for several first-line antimalarial drugs. Currently artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) is recommended for the treatment of P. falciparum malaria. Fast acting artemisinin-based compounds are combined with a drug from a different class. The benefits of ACTs are their high efficacy, fast action and the reduced likelihood of resistance developing. A. annua also produces several polymethoxyflavones which are currently not in clinical use, but show some interesting pharmacological properties. The plants are grown as a medicinal crop, and the leaves are harvested for artemisinin extraction. Several attempts have been made to create varieties of A. annua that yield increased amounts of artemisinin; the efforts range from classical breeding to biotechnological approaches to use of genetic modification of crops. In a parallel development, key genes of the artemisinin biosynthetic pathways have been expressed in yeast, though full biosynthesis of the compound through yeast fermentation has not yet been achieved. At present, plant crops remain the only commercial source of artemisinin. In addition to its immediate pharmaceutical applications, over-the-counter available herbal preparations of Artemisia annua are widely promoted on-line as health supplements to fight inflammation or, even more controversially, as prophylactic against malaria for travellers to tropical countries.
dc.funderNo external funder
dc.identifier.citationArroo, R. (2023) Developing Artemisia annua L. for the production of artemisinin to treat multi-drug resistant malaria. In: 11th Conference Polish Society of Experimental Plant Biology - Book of Abstracts. Poznań, 19-22 September 2023. p. 39
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/2086/23250
dc.language.isoen
dc.peerreviewedYes
dc.researchinstituteLeicester Institute for Pharmaceutical Innovation - From Molecules to Practice (LIPI)
dc.rightsCC0 1.0 Universalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
dc.subjectNATURAL SCIENCES
dc.titleDeveloping Artemisia annua L. for the production of artemisinin to treat multi-drug resistant malaria
dc.typeConference

Files

License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
4.2 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

Leicester School of Pharmacy