TY - JOUR T1 - Artemisinin-independent inhibitory activity of <em>Artemisia</em> sp. infusions against different <em>Plasmodium</em> stages including relapse-causing hypnozoites JF - Life Science Alliance JO - Life Sci. Alliance DO - 10.26508/lsa.202101237 VL - 5 IS - 3 SP - e202101237 AU - Kutub Ashraf AU - Shahin Tajeri AU - Christophe-Sébastien Arnold AU - Nadia Amanzougaghene AU - Jean-François Franetich AU - Amélie Vantaux AU - Valérie Soulard AU - Mallaury Bordessoulles AU - Guillaume Cazals AU - Teun Bousema AU - Geert-Jan van Gemert AU - Roger Le Grand AU - Nathalie Dereuddre-Bosquet AU - Jean-Christophe Barale AU - Benoit Witkowski AU - Georges Snounou AU - Romain Duval AU - Cyrille Y Botté AU - Dominique Mazier Y1 - 2022/03/01 UR - https://www.life-science-alliance.org/content/5/3/e202101237.abstract N2 - Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT) are the frontline treatments against malaria worldwide. Recently the use of traditional infusions from Artemisia annua (from which artemisinin is obtained) or Artemisia afra (lacking artemisinin) has been controversially advocated. Such unregulated plant-based remedies are strongly discouraged as they might constitute sub-optimal therapies and promote drug resistance. Here, we conducted the first comparative study of the anti-malarial effects of both plant infusions in vitro against the asexual erythrocytic stages of Plasmodium falciparum and the pre-erythrocytic (i.e., liver) stages of various Plasmodium species. Low concentrations of either infusion accounted for significant inhibitory activities across every parasite species and stage studied. We show that these antiplasmodial effects were essentially artemisinin-independent and were additionally monitored by observations of the parasite apicoplast and mitochondrion. In particular, the infusions significantly incapacitated sporozoites, and for Plasmodium vivax and P. cynomolgi, disrupted the hypnozoites. This provides the first indication that compounds other than 8-aminoquinolines could be effective antimalarials against relapsing parasites. These observations advocate for further screening to uncover urgently needed novel antimalarial lead compounds. ER -