Artelinic acid explained

Artelinic acid (or its salt, artelinate) is an experimental drug that is being investigated as a treatment for malaria.^[1] It is a semi-synthetic derivative of the natural compound artemisinin. Artelinic acid has a lower rate of neurotoxicity than the related artemisinin derivatives arteether and artemether,^[2] but is three times more toxic than artesunate.^[3] At present, artelinic acid seems unlikely to enter routine clinical use, because it offers no clear benefits over the artemesinins already available (artesunate and artemether). Artelinic acid has not yet been evaluated for use in humans.

Notes and References

1. Bustos MD, Gay F, Diquet B . 1994 . In-vitro tests on Philippine isolates of Plasmodium falciparum against four standard antimalarials and four qinghaosu derivatives. . Bull World Health Organ . 72 . 5 . 729–35 . 7955021 . 2486549 .
2. Genovese RF, Newman DB, Brewer TG . 2000 . Behavioural and neural toxicity of the artemisinin antimalarial, arteether, but not artesunate and artelinate, in rats . Pharmacol Biochem Behav . 67 . 37–44 . 10.1016/S0091-3057(00)00309-9 . 11113482 . 1. 21246490 .
3. Li Q, Xie LH, Johnson TO . Toxicity exaluation of artesunate and artelinate in Plasmodium berghei-infected and uninfected rats . Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg Z . 2007 . 101 . 2 . 104–12 . 10.1016/j.trstmh.2006.04.010 . 16860356 . etal.