Artemisinin Antimalarial Mechanism

This paper has reviewed the development of artemisinin(Qinghaosu) as antimalarial medicine, introduced the structure and reactions of artemisinin and summarized antimalarial mechanisms of artemisinin comprehensively. Enlightened by the biochemistry mechanism of Plasmodium falciparum parasites and the molecular action mode that artemisinin alkylates protein, we've explored the free radical cleavage of artemisinin by ferrous ion in the presence of various amino acids and given some reasonable explanations. Moreover, we've prepared pantetheine in order to research further on a new potential antimalarial mode in which the coenzyme as a target would reaction with artemisinin.