Novel 4-Aminoquinoline Analogs Highly Active against the Blood and Sexual Stages of PlasmodiumIn VivoandIn Vitro

Abstract

ABSTRACTNew drugs to treat malaria must act rapidly and be highly potent against asexual blood stages, well tolerated, and affordable to residents of regions of endemicity. This was the case with chloroquine (CQ), a 4-aminoquinoline drug used for the prevention and treatment of malaria. However, since the 1960s,Plasmodium falciparumresistance to this drug has spread globally, and more recently, emerging resistance to CQ byPlasmodium vivaxthreatens the health of 70 to 320 million people annually. Despite the emergence of CQ resistance, synthetic quinoline derivatives remain validated leads for new drug discovery, especially if they are effective against CQ-resistant strains of malaria. In this study, we investigated the activities of two novel 4-aminoquinoline derivatives, TDR 58845,N1-(7-chloro-quinolin-4-yl)-2-methyl-propane-1,2-diamine, and TDR 58846,N1-(7-chloro-quinolin-4-yl)-2,N2,N2-trimethylpropane-1,2-diamine and found them to be active againstP. falciparumin vitroandPlasmodium bergheiin vivo. TheP. falciparumclones and isolates tested were susceptible to TDR 58845 and TDR 58846 (50% inhibitory concentrations [IC50s] ranging from 5.52 to 89.8 nM), including the CQ-resistant reference clone W2 and two multidrug-resistant parasites recently isolated from Thailand and Cambodia. Moreover, these 4-aminoquinolines were active against early and lateP. falciparumgametocyte stages and cured BALB/c mice infected withP. berghei. TDR 58845 and TDR 58846 at 40 mg/kg were sufficient to cure mice, and total doses of 480 mg/kg of body weight were well tolerated. Our findings suggest these novel 4-aminoquinolines should be considered for development as potent antimalarials that can be used in combination to treat multidrug-resistantP. falciparumandP. vivax.