Recent advances in novel heterocyclic scaffolds for the treatment of drug-resistant malaria

Malaria is a major public health problem all over the world, particularly in tropical and subtropical countries due to the development of resistance and most deadly infection is caused by Plasmodium falciparum. There is a direct need for the discovery of new drugs with unique structures and mechanism of action to treat sensitive and drug-resistant strains of various plasmodia for radical cure of this disease. Traditional compounds such as quinine and related derivatives represent a major source for the development of new drugs. This review presents recent modifications of 4-aminoquinoline and 8-aminoquinolone rings as leads to novel active molecules which are under clinical trials. The review also encompasses the other heterocyclic compounds emerged as potential antimalarial agents with promising results such as acridinediones and acridinone analogues, pyridines and quinolones as antimalarials. Miscellaneous heterocyclics such as tetroxane derivatives, indole derivatives, imidazolopiperazine derivatives, biscationic choline-based compounds and polymer-linked combined antimalarial drugs are also discussed. At last brief introduction to heterocyclics in natural products is also reviewed. Most of them have been under clinical trials and found to be promising in the treatment of drug-resistant strains of Plasmodium and others can be explored for the same purpose.