Malaria transmission blocking compounds: a patent review

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Despite substantial progress in the field, malaria remains a global health issue and currently available control strategies are not sufficient to achieve eradication. Agents able to prevent transmission are likely to have a strong impact on malaria control and have been prioritized as a primary objective to reduce the number of secondary infections. Therefore, there is an increased interest in finding novel drugs targeting sexual stages of Plasmodium and innovative methods to target malaria transmission from host to vector, and vice versa.

Areas covered

This review covers innovative transmission-blocking inventions patented between 2015 and October 2021. The focus is on chemical interventions, which could be used as ‘chemical vaccines’ to prevent transmission (small molecules, carbohydrates, and polypeptides).

Expert opinion

Even though the development of novel strategies to block transmission still requires fundamental additional research and a deeper understanding of parasite sexual stages biology, the research in this field has significantly accelerated. Among innovative inventions patented over the last 6 years, the surface-delivery of antimalarial drugs to kill transmission-stages parasites in mosquitoes holds the highest promise for success in malaria control strategies, opening completely new scenarios in malaria transmission-blocking drug discovery.

KEYWORDS:

• antimalarials
• drug discovery
• malaria
• plasmodium falciparum
• sexual stages
• gametocytes
• transmission-blocking

Article highlights

• Novel antimalarial drugs and innovative control strategies are essential to limit the spread of parasite resistance and achieve malaria eradication.

• Transmission-blocking agents are likely to have a strong impact on malaria control, and the research in this field has significantly accelerated over the last 10 years.

• This review focuses on innovative transmission-blocking inventions patented between 2015 and October 2021.

• The inventions patented over the last 6 years provide promising quinoline-based compounds able to prevent human-to-vector transmission, as well as ingenious interventions to target mosquito stages.

• The surface-delivery of antimalarial drugs is the most promising strategy to target transmission-stages parasites in mosquitoes and opens new scenarios in malaria transmission-blocking drug discovery.

This box summarizes key points contained in the article.

Declaration of interests

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers in this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.