Understanding drug resistance in malaria parasites: Basic science for public health

- Advances in basic science are key to understanding resistance to antimalarials.
- Understanding of resistance to older drugs was only gained retrospectively.
- Studies of old drugs illustrated tools for early warning of resistance.
- Sustained efficacy of current drugs could be achieved by applying these tools.

The worlds of basic scientists and those involved in treating patients and making public health decisions do not always intersect. Yet, assuring that when patients are treated, they are efficiently and completely cured, and that public health decisions are based on solid evidence requires a broad foundation of up to date basic research. Research on the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum provides a useful illustration of the role that basic scientific studies have played in the very long relationship between humans and this deadly parasite. Drugs have always been a principal tool in malaria treatment. The ongoing struggle between evolution of resistance to antimalarials by the parasite and public health responses is used here as an illustration of the key contributions of basic scientists to this long history.

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