Drug Resistance in Malaria: Investigation of Mechanisms and Patterns of Drug Resistance and Cross Resistance in Malaria

摘要

This contract had five technical objectives: (1) identification of binding sites of drugs (mefloquine, etc.) in erythrocytes and/or parasites, (2) investigation of binding of drugs (mefloquine in particular) in malaria strains resistant and susceptible to other drugs (chloroquine in particular), (3) investigation of the mechanism of action of drugs (mefloquine in particular) and the effect on metabolism of erythrocytes and parasites, (4) correlation of drug resistance and accumulation of drugs by infected erythrocytes to allow predictions of cross resistance, and (5) development of a method to predict cross resistance based on response of isolated malaria parasites to drug-receptor complexes.