Research and development of causal chemoprophylactics in malaria/Avances en la busqueda y desarrollo de quimioprofilacticos causales para malaria/Progressos nas pesquisas e desenvolvimento de profilaxia primaria para a malaria

Malaria is an infectious disease of great epidemiological relevance worldwide, caused by several species of Plasmodium. Causal chemoprophylactics (QC) are important to prevent infection and/or development of liver forms of Plasmodium spp. Since the development of new QC is a topic of interest in malaria control, we carried out a literature review to determine the status of research and development of QC in in vivo models. The aim was to present a literature update and to draw attention to the importance of this field of research. We searched for literature published between 1995 and 2015 in the databases: PubMed, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar and the official website of the World Health Organization (WHO), using the keywords: chemoprophylaxis, quimioprofilaxis, malaria, Plasmodium and in vivo. We included 33 research articles of the world literature and four WHO reports, published between 1995 and 2015. Our review showed that the semisynthetic molecule NCP-tazopsine, and the synthetic molecules KAF156 (imidazole-piperazine) and tafenoquine (8 aminoquinoline) are the most promising causal chemoprophylactic agents currently under study. These molecules could become new alternatives for malaria control in the near future. KEY WORDS Chemoprophylaxis; In vivo: Malaria; Plasmodium La malaria es una enfermedad infecciosa de importancia epidemiologica mundial, producida por diferentes especies del genero Plasmodium. La quimioprofilaxis causal (QC) evita la infeccion y/o el desarrollo de las formas hepaticas de Plasmodium spp. Considerando recientemente la QC como una estrategia para reducir la carga de morbimortalidad en regiones endemicas para malaria, en el marco de programas para el control, la eliminacion o la posible erradicacion de la enfermedad, se hizo una revision no sistematica de la literatura para conocer el estado del avance de las investigaciones sobre quimioprofilacticos causales en modelos in vivo para malaria, para aportar al conocimiento, presentando un panorama actualizado sobre el tema, y llamar la atencion acerca de la importancia y la necesidad de nuevos medicamentos con efecto quimioprofilactico. Para ello, se consultaron las bases de datos: PubMed, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar y la pagina oficial de la Organizacion Mundial de la Salud (OMS), combinando los descriptores o palabras clave: chemoprophylaxis, quimioprofilaxis, malaria, Plasmodium e in vivo. Luego de revisar 33 articulos de la literatura mundial y 4 informes de la OMS, publicado