Antimalarial chemotherapy: orally curative artemisinin-derived trioxane dimer esters.

Eight new artemisinin-derived trioxane dimer esters 5 have been prepared and tested for antimalarial efficacy in malaria-infected mice. At a single oral dose of only 6mg/kg combined with 18mg/kg of mefloquine, each of the dimer esters 5 outperformed the antimalarial drug artemether (2). The most efficacious dimer, dichlorobenzoate ester 5h, prolonged mouse survival past day 30 of infection with three of the four mice in this group having no detectable parasitemia and appearing and acting healthy on day 30.