Metal complexes with high biological activity against chloroquine resistant strain of plasmodium falciparum parasite

E.M. R. Kiremire¹*, K. Chibale², P. J. Rosenthal³, L.S. Daniel¹, A. M. Negonga¹ and F. M. Munyolo²

¹Department of Chemistry, University of Namibia, Private Bag 13301, Windhoek, (Namibia) ²Department of Chemistry University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701 (South Africa) ³ Department of Medicine, San Fransisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California - 941 43 (USA)

ABSTRACT: Metal complexes of Manganese (II),Iron(II), Cobalt(II), Nickel (II), Copper (II), Zinc (II) and Cadmium (II) containing a sulphur-nitrogen ligand were subjected to biological tests on falcipain-2 (FP-2) and falcipain-3 ( FP-3) cysteine protease enzymes from the malaria parasite plasmodium falciparum. They were further tested in vitro against chloroquine resistant strain (W2). Whereas the potency of the five metal complexes was weaker than the control regarding the FP-2 and FP-3, the potency of five metal complexes was found to be exceedingly greater than the control by a magnitude of 130 or more times than the standard drug when tested against the chloroquine resistant strain (W2). Such complexes have the potential to act as lead compounds for drug design.

KEYWORDS: Metal complexes; biological activity; Plasmodium falciparum parasite

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