Date: June 26, 2012

Spencer Knapp is the principal investigator of an award totaling $1,614,507. The project titled Validation of New Antimalarial Leads is being supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Promising dihydroisoquinoline (DHIQ, below left) drug candidates have been developed by modification of an active hit obtained by high throughput library screening against human blood cells infected with the malaria pathogen P. falciparum.  Preliminary evaluation in a mouse model (below right) indicates that the DHIQs hold promise as effective antimalarials.

Structure of a DHIQ Rate of P. falciparum clearance in mouse
(DHIQs are in green, existing drugs in blue)
Structure of DHIQ Rate of P falciparum clearance