Information

Research outputs

Most relevant publications produced under the CoP

2021

Dina Coertzen, Janette Reader, Mariëtte E. van der Watt, Meta M. Leshabane, Henrico Langeveld, Peter M. Cheuka, Godwin A. Dziwornu, K Chibale & L Birkholtz (2021) Exploring the transmission-blocking activity of antiplasmodial 3,6-diarylated imidazopyridazines, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa, 76:3, 225-233, DOI: 10.1080/0035919X.2021.1982792

Mambwe D, Kumar M, Ferger R, Taylor D, Njoroge M, Coertzen D, Reader J, van der Watt M, Birkholtz LM, Chibale K. Structure-Activity Relationship Studies Reveal New Astemizole Analogues Active against Plasmodium falciparum In Vitro. ACS Med Chem Lett. 2021 Aug 2;12(8):1333-1341. doi: 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.1c00328. PMID: 34413963; PMCID: PMC8366009.

Woldegebriel Assefa Woldegerima, Rachid Ouifki, Jacek Banasiak, Mathematical analysis of the impact of transmission-blocking drugs on the population dynamics of malaria, Applied Mathematics and Computation, Volume 400, 2021, 126005, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amc.2021.126005.

Leshabane M, Dziwornu GA, Coertzen D, Reader J, Moyo P, van der Watt M, Chisanga K, Nsanzubuhoro C, Ferger R, Erlank E, Venter N, Koekemoer L, Chibale K, Birkholtz LM. Benzimidazole Derivatives Are Potent against Multiple Life Cycle Stages of Plasmodium falciparum Malaria Parasites. ACS Infect Dis. 2021 Jul 9;7(7):1945-1955. doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.0c00910.

Dziwornu GA, Coertzen D, Leshabane M, Korkor CM, Cloete CK, Njoroge M, Gibhard L, Lawrence N, Reader J, van der Watt M, Wittlin S, Birkholtz LM, Chibale K. Antimalarial Benzimidazole Derivatives Incorporating Phenolic Mannich Base Side Chains Inhibit Microtubule and Hemozoin Formation: Structure-Activity Relationship and In Vivo Oral Efficacy Studies. J Med Chem. 2021 Apr 22;64(8):5198-5215. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c00354. Epub 2021 Apr 12. PMID: 33844521.

Cheuka PM, Centani L, Arendse LB, Fienberg S, Wambua L, Renga SS, Dziwornu GA, Kumar M, Lawrence N, Taylor D, Wittlin S, Coertzen D, Reader J, van der Watt M, Birkholtz LM, Chibale K. New Amidated 3,6-Diphenylated Imidazopyridazines with Potent Antiplasmodium Activity Are Dual Inhibitors of Plasmodium Phosphatidylinositol-4-kinase and cGMP-Dependent Protein Kinase. ACS Infect Dis. 2021 Jan 8;7(1):34-46. doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.0c00481.

Reader J, van der Watt ME, Taylor D, Le Manach C, Mittal N, Ottilie S, Theron A, Moyo P, Erlank E, Nardini L, Venter N, Lauterbach S, Bezuidenhout B, Horatscheck A, van Heerden A, Spillman NJ, Cowell AN, Connacher J, Opperman D, Orchard LM, Llinás M, Istvan ES, Goldberg DE, Boyle GA, Calvo D, Mancama D, Coetzer TL, Winzeler EA, Duffy J, Koekemoer LL, Basarab G, Chibale K, Birkholtz LM. Multistage and transmission-blocking targeted antimalarials discovered from the open-source MMV Pandemic Response Box. Nat Commun. 2021 Jan 11;12(1):269. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-20629-8. PMID: 33431834; PMCID: PMC7801607.

2020

Jokonya S, Langlais M, Leshabane M, Reader PW, Vosloo JA, Pfukwa R, Coertzen D, Birkholtz LM, Rautenbach M, Klumperman B. Poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) Antimalaria Conjugates of Membrane-Disruptive Peptides. Biomacromolecules. 2020 Dec 14;21(12):5053-5066. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.0c01202.

Fortuin L, Leshabane M, Pfukwa R, Coertzen D, Birkholtz LM, Klumperman B. Facile Route to Targeted, Biodegradable Polymeric Prodrugs for the Delivery of Combination Therapy for Malaria. ACS Biomater Sci Eng. 2020 Nov 9;6(11):6217-6227. doi: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.0c01234.

Workshops & Symposia

Workshop 2018

The CoP members hosted a 2 ­day international workshop in March 20218,  expanding the community  to 30 key role players, including postgraduate students and importantly, 7 international leaders in the field, attesting to the impact and international standing of the South African members of the CoP. As tangible outcomes, the workshop resulted in cementing international strategies to evaluate transmission ­blocking antimalarials, with a screening cascade enabling such discoveries developed.

The CoP collaborators at the first stakeholder meeting in March 2018

 In November 2019, the CoP hosted an international symposium with over 50 key national and international stakeholders in the malaria research community, students and postdocs expanding the international collaborative standing of the CoP. One of the outcomes of this symposium establishement of an international collaboration through the award of a DFG German-African cooperation project in infectiology for the development of Polymer-drug systems for controlled delivery of transmission blocking antimalarial drug leads. This will be performed in collaboration with Prof Albena Lederer (Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, IPF Dresden and holder of SASOL Chair of Analytical Polymer Science) incl. other EU partners. 

The CoP collaborators at the symposium and stakeholder meeting that took place at Future Africa in November 2019