On peroxide antimalarials

Abstract

Several dicyclohexylidene tetraoxanes were prepared in order to gain a further insight into structure–activity relationship of this kind of antimalarials. The tetraoxanes 2–5, obtained as a cis/trans mixture, showed pronounced antimalarial activity against Plasmodium falciparum chloroquine susceptible D6, chloroquine resistant W2 and multidrug-resistant TM91C235 (Thailand) strains. They have better than or similar activity to the corresponding desmethyl dicyclohexylidene derivatives. Two chimeric endoperoxides with superior antimalarial activity to the natural product ascaridole were also synthesized.

Keywords

• mixed tetraoxanes
• endoperoxides
• malaria
• P. falciparum