Npc37889

UsesArtemisia annua is used as antimalarial drugs. Clinical application has shown that artemisinin and its derivatives have special effects on treating the malaria and falciparum malaria, especially artemisinin which has stronger killing effect on Plasmodium falciparum intracellular phorozoon than other artemisinin drugs, characterized by high efficiency, rapid efficacy, low toxicity and no cross-resistance with chloroquine, etc. It can be not only used for treatment, but also for emergency treatment. It is applicable to a variety of malaria such as falciparum malaria, vivax malaria, anti-chloroquine malaria and cerebral malaria, including dangerous type. The most notable drug is dihydroartemisinin and its tablets. This drug has its antimalarial effect be 10 times as strong as artemisinin with the recurrence rate of only 1.95%, thus having been rated as China's top ten scientific and technological achievements in 1992. Artemisinin and its derivatives not only are excellent antimalarial drugs, but also have potentially attractive prospect in the treatment of other diseases. Animal experiments have found that artemisinin treatment of Clonorchis sinensis can achieve a rate of pest control being up to 100%; treatment of animal schistosomiasis can achieve a pest control rate of 33.8-99.3%. Application of artemisinin treatment of discoid lupus erythematosus can achieve a total effective rate of 90%. Its efficacy in the treatment of dengue fever is significantly better than morphine biguanide and other western medicines. Immunologists have also found that artemisinin can significantly improve the lymphocyte transformation rate and enhance the immune function of antibodies. People haven’t found toxic effect of this product on the heart, liver and kidney. People haven’t observed any significant side effects in clinical practice.

DescriptionArtemisinin is an antimalarial agent with anticancer activity. It is an iron(II) oxide-reactive endoperoxide that generates reactive oxygen species (ROS) upon cleavage of its endoperoxide bridge. It reduces the growth of various P. falciparum strains in vitro (IC50s = 3.98-20.36 nM) and reduces parasitemia in mice infected with P. falciparum with a curative dose (CD50) value of 140 mg/kg. It also reduces P. berghei infection in mice (ED50 = 5.6 mg/kg per day). Artemisinin (100-400 μM) induces cell cycle arrest in the G0/G1 phase and apoptosis and inhibits growth of SK-N-AS, BE(2)-C, SK-N-DZ, and SHEP1 neuroblastoma cells in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. It also suppresses BE(2)-C cell colony formation in a soft agar assay and reduces tumor growth in a BE(2)-C mouse xenograft model. Formulations containing artemisinin have been used in combination therapies for the treatment of malaria.