A report on Artemisinin and Tu Youyou

Figure 1. Biosynthesis of Artemisinin
Tu in Stockholm, December 2015
Artemisia annua

It was discovered in 1972 by Tu Youyou, who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discovery.

- Artemisinin

She discovered artemisinin (also known as qīnghāosù, 青蒿素) and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria, a breakthrough in twentieth-century tropical medicine, saving millions of lives in South China, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America.

- Tu Youyou
Figure 1. Biosynthesis of Artemisinin

4 related topics with Alpha

Overall

Artemisia annua

3 links

Common type of wormwood native to temperate Asia, but naturalized in many countries including scattered parts of North America.

Common type of wormwood native to temperate Asia, but naturalized in many countries including scattered parts of North America.

Artemisia annua
Seeds

An extract of A. annua, called artemisinin (or artesunate), is a medication used to treat malaria.

Discovery of artemisinin and its antimalarial properties by the Chinese scientist, Tu Youyou, led to award of the 2011 Lasker Prize and 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Malaria parasite connecting to a red blood cell

Malaria

1 links

Mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals.

Mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals.

Malaria parasite connecting to a red blood cell
Main symptoms of malaria
The life cycle of malaria parasites. Sporozoites are introduced by a mosquito bite. They migrate to the liver, where they multiply into thousands of merozoites. The merozoites infect red blood cells and replicate, infecting more and more red blood cells. Some parasites form gametocytes, which are taken up by a mosquito, continuing the life cycle.
Micrograph of a placenta from a stillbirth due to maternal malaria. H&E stain. Red blood cells are anuclear; blue/black staining in bright red structures (red blood cells) indicate foreign nuclei from the parasites.
Electron micrograph of a Plasmodium falciparum-infected red blood cell (center), illustrating adhesion protein "knobs"
The blood film is the gold standard for malaria diagnosis.
Ring-forms and gametocytes of Plasmodium falciparum in human blood
An Anopheles stephensi mosquito shortly after obtaining blood from a human (the droplet of blood is expelled as a surplus). This mosquito is a vector of malaria, and mosquito control is an effective way of reducing its incidence.
Man spraying kerosene oil in standing water, Panama Canal Zone, 1912
Walls where indoor residual spraying of DDT has been applied. The mosquitoes remain on the wall until they fall down dead on the floor.
A mosquito net in use.
An advertisement for quinine as a malaria treatment from 1927.
Deaths due to malaria per million persons in 2012
Past and current malaria prevalence in 2009
Ancient malaria oocysts preserved in Dominican amber
British doctor Ronald Ross received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria.
Chinese medical researcher Tu Youyou received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2015 for her work on the antimalarial drug artemisinin.
Artemisia annua, source of the antimalarial drug artemisinin
U.S. Marines with malaria in a field hospital on Guadalcanal, October 1942
Members of the Malaria Commission of the League of Nations collecting larvae on the Danube delta, 1929
1962 Pakistani postage stamp promoting malaria eradication program
Malaria clinic in Tanzania
Child with malaria in Ethiopia
World War II poster
Disability-adjusted life year for malaria per 100,000 inhabitants in 2004 no data <10 0–100 100–500 500–1000 1000–1500 1500–2000 2000–2500 2500–2750 2750–3000 3000–3250 3250–3500 ≥3500

The recommended treatment for malaria is a combination of antimalarial medications that includes artemisinin.

Artemisinins, discovered by Chinese scientist Tu Youyou and colleagues in the 1970s from the plant Artemisia annua, became the recommended treatment for P. falciparum malaria, administered in severe cases in combination with other antimalarials.

Traditional Chinese medicines/dried goods shop in Kowloon, Hong Kong

Traditional Chinese medicine

1 links

Alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China.

Alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China.

Traditional Chinese medicines/dried goods shop in Kowloon, Hong Kong
A prescription section of a pharmacy in Nanning, Guangxi, China selling prepackaged Chinese and Western medicine (left) and Chinese medicinal herbs (right).
The Compendium of Materia Medica is a pharmaceutical text written by Li Shizhen (1518–1593 CE) during the Ming dynasty of China. This edition was published in 1593.
Acupuncture chart from Hua Shou (fl. 1340s, Yuan dynasty). This image from Shi si jing fa hui (Expression of the Fourteen Meridians). (Tokyo: Suharaya Heisuke kanko, Kyoho gan 1716).
Yin and yang symbol for balance. In traditional Chinese Medicine, good health is believed to be achieved by various balances, including a balance between yin and yang.
Interactions of Wu Xing
Old Chinese medical chart on acupuncture meridians
200px
Assorted dried plant and animal parts used in traditional Chinese medicines, clockwise from top left corner: dried Lingzhi (lit. "spirit mushrooms"), ginseng, Luo Han Guo, turtle shell underbelly (plastron), and dried curled snakes.
Chinese red ginseng roots
A bile bear in a "crush cage" on Huizhou Farm, China.
Dried seahorses are extensively used in traditional medicine in China and elsewhere.
Dried human placenta (Ziheche (紫河车) is used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Artemisia annua, traditionally used to treat fever, has been found to have antimalarial properties.
Galena (lead ore) is part of historical TCM. Standard American TCM practice considers lead-containing herbs obsolete.
Needles being inserted into the skin
A bronze acupuncture statue from the Ming Dynasty being displayed inside a museum
An example of a traditional Chinese medicine used in tui na
Acupuncture and moxibustion after cupping in Japan
Gua sha
The Chinese traditional medicine at one of Chinese traditional medicine shop at Jagalan Road, Surabaya, Indonesia.
Seirogan, a type of antidiarrhoeal drug in Japan developed based on Kanpo medicine theory
The logo of the Dutch Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine (or 中 Zhong - Nederlandse Vereniging voor Traditionele Chinese Geneeskunde), the largest of the professional organisations that is recognised by private health insurance companies in the Netherlands.

There had been success in the 1970s, however, with the development of the antimalarial drug artemisinin, which is a processed extract of Artemisia annua, a herb traditionally used as a fever treatment.

Researcher Tu Youyou discovered that a low-temperature extraction process could isolate an effective antimalarial substance from the plant.

Artemisia annua, the source of the artemisinin

Project 523

1 links

Code name for a 1967 secret military project of the People's Republic of China to find antimalarial medications.

Code name for a 1967 secret military project of the People's Republic of China to find antimalarial medications.

Artemisia annua, the source of the artemisinin
Tu Youyou (right) and her tutor Lou Zhicen at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences.

The one for investigating traditional Chinese medicine discovered and led to the development of a class of new antimalarial drugs called artemisinins.

Tu Youyou of the Qinghaosu Research Center, Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (now the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medical Sciences), received both the 2011 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award and 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her role in the discovery of artemisinin.