Researchers develop long-acting malaria prevention drug

A long-acting therapy to prevent malaria could supplant the current daily oral dosing regimen that is susceptible to non-adherence, researchers at the University of Liverpool and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have found.

Researchers set out to manipulate the molecular makeup of anti-malaria tablets to create an injectable format that maintains effective concentration levels in blood for weeks or months from a single dose.

“Although anti-malaria drugs exist they require individuals to take medication daily,” Steve Rannard, a materials chemist professor at the University of Liverpool, said. “Chronic oral dosing has significant complications that arise from the high pill burden experienced by many patients across populations with varying conditions leading to non-adherence to preventive therapies.”

By eliminating the need for daily tablets, the new therapy holds potential to prevent the spread and transmission of malaria significantly, he added.

“The ability of this nanomedicine to protect from infection by malaria may provide an additional tool in the global arsenal used to combat malaria in non-immune travelers and ultimately people who live in endemic areas of the world,” Andrew Owen, a pharmacologist professor at the University of Liverpool, said. “Since atovaquone is already licensed for use in humans and the nanomedicine contains ingredients already used in other medicines, it could enter clinical trials within a very short timescale”