A report on Artemisinin

Figure 1. Biosynthesis of Artemisinin
Artemisia annua

Artemisinin and its semisynthetic derivatives are a group of drugs used in the treatment of malaria due to Plasmodium falciparum.

- Artemisinin
Figure 1. Biosynthesis of Artemisinin

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

Traditional Chinese medicine

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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
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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.

Artemether/lumefantrine

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Combination of the two medications artemether and lumefantrine.

Combination of the two medications artemether and lumefantrine.

In 2001, the first fixed dose artemisinin-based combination therapy to meet the World Health Organization's (WHO) pre-qualification criteria for efficacy, safety and quality was created.

Structures of some sesquiterpene lactones: A: Germacranolides, B: Heliangolides, C+D: Guaianolides, E: Pseudoguaianolides, F: Hypocretenolides, G: Eudesmanolides.

Sesquiterpene lactone

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Sesquiterpene lactones (SLs) are a class of sesquiterpenoids that contain a lactone ring.

Sesquiterpene lactones (SLs) are a class of sesquiterpenoids that contain a lactone ring.

Structures of some sesquiterpene lactones: A: Germacranolides, B: Heliangolides, C+D: Guaianolides, E: Pseudoguaianolides, F: Hypocretenolides, G: Eudesmanolides.

Artemisinin, a new, highly-effective anti-malarial compound, is a sesquiterpene lactone found in Artemisia annua.

Artemisia annua, the source of the artemisinin

Project 523

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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.

1,2,4-Trioxane

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One of the isomers of trioxane.

One of the isomers of trioxane.

The natural compound artemisinin, isolated from the sweet wormwood plant (Artemisia annua), and some semi-synthetic derivatives are important antimalarial drugs containing the 1,2,4-trioxane ring.

Artelinic acid

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Experimental drug that is being investigated as a treatment for malaria.

Experimental drug that is being investigated as a treatment for malaria.

It is a semi-synthetic derivative of the natural compound artemisinin.

The general structure of an organic peroxide

Organic peroxides

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Organic peroxides are organic compounds containing the peroxide functional group (ROOR′).

Organic peroxides are organic compounds containing the peroxide functional group (ROOR′).

The general structure of an organic peroxide
The general structure of a perester
A bridging peroxide group in ascaridole.
Loss of CO2 of a dioxetane, giving rise to an excited ketone, which relaxes by emitting light.
Firefly Lampyris noctiluca
Iodine-starch test. Note the blackening (left) of initially yellowish (right) starch.
The GHS transport pictogram for organic peroxides.

For example, artemisinin and its derivatives, such as artesunate, possess the most rapid action of all current drugs against falciparum malaria.

Synthetic Biology Research at NASA Ames Research Center.

Synthetic biology

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Multidisciplinary area of research that seeks to create new biological parts, devices, and systems, or to redesign systems that are already found in nature.

Multidisciplinary area of research that seeks to create new biological parts, devices, and systems, or to redesign systems that are already found in nature.

Synthetic Biology Research at NASA Ames Research Center.
Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL) standard visual symbols for use with BioBricks Standard
In 2021, researchers presented a bioprinting method to produce steak-like cultured meat.
The Top7 protein was one of the first proteins designed for a fold that had never been seen before in nature
Gene functions in the minimal genome of the synthetic organism, Syn 3.

This includes engineering E. coli and yeast for commercial production of a precursor of the antimalarial drug, Artemisinin.

Figure 1: ADS regulation by SS mRNA

Amorpha-4,11-diene synthase

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The enzyme amorpha-4,11-diene synthase (ADS, ) catalyzes the chemical reaction

The enzyme amorpha-4,11-diene synthase (ADS, ) catalyzes the chemical reaction

Figure 1: ADS regulation by SS mRNA
Figure 2: ADS Mechanism
Figure 23 Amorpha-4,11-diene to Artemisinin

This enzyme is mainly found in Artemisia annua, a temperate Asian native flowering plant, and ADS catalyzes the first committed step in the antimalarial drug artemisinin synthesis.

Ascaris worms (one type of helminth) in the small bowel of an infected person (X-ray image with barium as contrast medium)

Helminthiasis

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Any macroparasitic disease of humans and other animals in which a part of the body is infected with parasitic worms, known as helminths.

Any macroparasitic disease of humans and other animals in which a part of the body is infected with parasitic worms, known as helminths.

Ascaris worms (one type of helminth) in the small bowel of an infected person (X-ray image with barium as contrast medium)
Example clinical photo: Guinea worm infection (dracunculiasis), worm coming out of the foot of an infected person.
Ascaris infection: Antimesenteric splitting of the outer layers of the bowel wall due to a large amount of ascaris (South Africa)
Micrograph of cut section of human appendix showing a pin worm.
Ascaris life cycle: Adult worms in the lumen of the small intestine (1). The female produces eggs (approximately 200,000 per day) that are excreted with the feces (2). Unfertilized eggs are harmless, but fertilized ones are infective after 18 days to several weeks (3). Infective eggs are ingested (4), enter the gut (5), develop into larvae in the intestine, and penetrate the blood vessel to enter lungs, where they develop further (6), after 10 to 14 days, penetrate the alveolar walls, ascend the bronchial tree to the throat, and are re-swallowed (7). Upon reaching the small intestine, they develop into adult worms (8). It takes 2 to 3 months for one complete cycle. Adult worms can live 1 to 2 years.
Collage of various helminth eggs, from left to right: Trichosomoides egg, Ascaris lumbricoides with larva hatching, sample of adult roundworms, Hymenolepis nana, Schistosoma mansoni and Toxocara canis with larva hatching
Identification and quantification of helminth eggs at UNAM university in Mexico City, Mexico
Example of ascariasis (ascaris infection) - Difficult surgical procedure in South Africa on a gangrenous piece of bowel that had to be cut out; live ascaris worms are emerging.
Piece of intestine, blocked by worms, surgically removed from a 3-year-old boy in South Africa.

Artemisinins and derivatives are proving to be candidates as drugs of choice for trematodiasis.