Session Speaker

Antimalarial Activities of Phosphine / Ruthenium Complexes
Alzir A. Batista, Marilia I.F. Barbosa, Matheus S. Sá, Maria N. Menezes and Milena B.P. Soares
Brazil

Malaria is estimated to cause 300-500 million clinical cases and over one million deaths each year. Every 30 seconds, a child somewhere dies of malaria. In any given year, nearly ten percent of the global population will suffer a case of this disease. These informations, along with the increase in antimalarial-resistant parasites, justify the importance of development of new chemotherapeutic agents against this tropical disease. Metal-based compounds may constitute the basis for development of new antimalarics. Thus, in our laboratories we are investigating a series of ruthenium complexes, which are showing promising antimalarial activity. These ruthenium complexes present ligands such as NO, CO, or pyridine and phosphines in their structures. Some interesting tendencies emerge from our data, indicating that the antiplasmodial activity is related to a balance of effects associated with the lipophilicity, basicity, and structural details of the compounds studied.