<p>Malaria is one of the most widespread and deadly infectious diseases worldwide. New compounds are continuously required due to the risk of malaria parasites becoming resistant to the medicines currently used. A team of researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) led by Prof. Dr. Svetlana B. Tsogoeva has now combined the anti-malaria drug artemisinin with coumarin, which, like artemisinin, is also found in plants, and developed an auto-fluorescent compound from both bioactive substances. This autofluorescence is particularly advantageous as it can be used for imaging in live cells and shows how the medication works in a precise time sequence. The working group also discovered that the autofluorescent artemisinin-coumarin hybrids are able to destroy a certain drug-resistant malaria pathogen called plasmodium palcifarum. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1039/D3SC03661H" target=" self">They have published their findings in the journal Chemical Science.</a></p>
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