ArticlePloS one2010
Artemisinin directly targets malarial mitochondria through its specific mitochondrial activation.
Article in PloS one, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 105 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
105 citing papers in PubMed, 256 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Heme as activator and target for artemisinin: Towards multiple pharmacological bioactivity.Biochemistry and biophysics reports · 2026Review
- Identification and analysis of the crucial holin domain and sites and the bactericidal activity of a holin-endolysin lysis cassette from phage PZL-Ah152 againstJournal of virology · 2026Article
- Fluorescence-based bioassay for the detection of changes in mitochondrial physiology during artemisinin-induced growth arrest of blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Assessing the Anti-Cryptococcus Antifungal Potential of Artemisinin.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- The novel amino-artemisinin derivative WHN-11 disrupts mitochondria and protein homeostasis, and induces autophagy and apoptosis in cancer cells.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Plant-derived products as anti-leishmanials which target mitochondria: a review.Expert reviews in molecular medicine · 2025Review
- The essential genome ofScience (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Two-photon NAD(P)H-FLIM reveals unperturbed energy metabolism of Ascaris suum larvae, in contrast to host macrophages upon artemisinin derivatives exposure.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Sesquiterpene Lactones as Promising Anti-Glioblastoma Drug Candidates Exerting Complex Effects on Glioblastoma Cell Viability and Proneural-Mesenchymal Transition.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Supercritical COBiotechnology notes (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Review
- Artemisinin's molecular symphony: illuminating pathways for cancer therapy.Molecular biology reports · 2024Review
- The Antiviral and Antimalarial Prodrug Artemisinin from theCurrent issues in molecular biology · 2024Review
- Drug Repurposing against Novel Therapeutic Targets inCurrent medicinal chemistry · 2024Review
- Applicability of Redirecting Artemisinins for New Targets.Global challenges (Hoboken, NJ) · 2023Review
- Article
- A novel Modulator of Ring Stage Translation (MRST) gene alters artemisinin sensitivity inmSphere · 2023Article
- In vitro and in vivo antiplasmodial evaluation of sugar-modified nucleoside analogues.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Anti-Mitochondrial and Insecticidal Effects of Artemisinin againstInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Review
45 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The biological mode of action of artemisinin, a potent antimalarial, has long been controversial. Previously we established a yeast model addressing its mechanism of action and found mitochondria the key in executing artemisinin's action. Here we present data showing that artemisinin directly acts on mitochondria and it inhibits malaria in a similar way as yeast. Specifically, artemisinin and its homologues exhibit correlated activities against malaria and yeast, with the peroxide bridge playing a key role for their inhibitory action in both organisms. In addition, we showed that artemisinins are distributed to malarial mitochondria and directly impair their functions when isolated mitochondria were tested. In efforts to explore how the action specificity of artemisinin is achieved, we found strikingly rapid and dramatic reactive oxygen species (ROS) production is induced with artemisinin in isolated yeast and malarial but not mammalian mitochondria, and ROS scavengers can ameliorate the effects of artemisinin. Deoxyartemisinin, which lacks an endoperoxide bridge, has no effect on membrane potential or ROS production in malarial mitochondria. OZ209, a distantly related antimalarial endoperoxide, also causes ROS production and depolarization in isolated malarial mitochondria. Finally, interference of mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) can alter the sensitivity of the parasite towards artemisinin. Addition of iron chelator desferrioxamine drastically reduces ETC activity as well as mitigates artemisinin-induced ROS production. Taken together, our results indicate that mitochondrion is an important direct target, if not the sole one, in the antimalarial action of artemisinins. We suggest that fundamental differences among mitochondria from different species delineate the action specificity of this class of drugs, and differing from many other drugs, the action specificity of artemisinins originates from their activation mechanism.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.