Artemisinin-A Gift from Traditional Chinese Medicine to the World (Nobel Lecture)

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Abstract

Malaria has long been a devastating and life-threatening global epidemic disease in human history. Artemisinin, the active substance against malaria, was first isolated and tested in the 1970s in China. The important role played by traditional Chinese medicine in the discovery of artemisinin is described by Y. Tu in her Nobel Lecture.

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Plasmodium malariae: parasite and disease.

G. Jeffery, James W. Collins (2007)

A review of the life history of Plasmodium malariae, the quartan malaria parasite of humans, is presented. Much of the information is based on data obtained from induced infections in humans who were given malaria therapy for the treatment of neurosyphilis between 1940 and 1963. Prepatent periods (i.e., the time until the first day of parasite detection) fever episodes, and maximum parasitemias as a result of infection with P. malariae were obtained and are presented. Experimental and known vectors of the parasite are also discussed. Splenectomized chimpanzees and New World monkeys are readily infected and serve as sources of parasites and antigens for diagnostic and molecular studies. South American monkeys are naturally infected with a parasite known as Plasmodium brasilianum. This parasite appears to be P. malariae that has adapted from humans to grow in monkeys, probably within the last 500 years. Infection with P. malariae is associated with the production of immune complexes in the kidneys and the associated nephrotic syndrome. The essential lesions are a thickening of the glomerular basement membrane and endocapillary cell proliferation. Studies of monkeys infected with P. malariae indicate the same pathology as that demonstrated in humans.

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Bad air, amulets and mosquitoes: 2,000 years of changing perspectives on malaria

Ernst Hempelmann, Kristine Krafts (2013)

For many centuries, scientists have debated the cause and best treatment of the disease now known as malaria. Two theories regarding malaria transmission – that of “bad air” and that of insect vectors – have been widely accepted at different times throughout history. Treatments and cures have varied accordingly over time. This paper traces the evolution of scientific consensus on malaria aetiology, transmission, and treatment from ancient times to the present day.