Profiling Anti-Malarials for Loss of Efficacy in Endemic Regions

Sangeeta Bhatia of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S. will analyze the 400 compounds with antimalarial activity in the Malaria Box to identify those that might inhibit the efficacy of drugs used to treat HIV and tuberculosis (TB) when administered to the same person. They will use their in vitro human microliver model, which consists of organized liver and stromal cells, in a low-cost, scalable and high-throughput assay to determine the effect of the antimalarial compounds on the expression of a broad panel of human metabolizing enzymes. These data will help to predict drug performances of anti-malarials, anti-HIV, and anti-TB regimens and prioritize the development of drug candidates.