Targeting Malaria: The Potential of Peptidomimetics as Antimalarial Therapeutics
Omkumar Prajapati, Priya Sharma, Devanshi Patel, Vijay Gohil, Aman Shaikh, Om Sathavara, Unnati Barodia, Mahesh A. Barmade, M. R. Yadav, Prashant MurumkarABSTRACT
As drug‐resistant malaria becomes an urgent global concern, there arises a pressing need to explore new treatment avenues for the disease beyond traditional therapeutics. While traditional peptides are selective, they often face issues such as poor bioavailability and rapid degradation in the body. Peptidomimetics aim to replicate the structure and function of natural peptides with enhanced stability, providing an effective strategy to target the plasmodium parasite. This review covers the emergence of peptidomimetics, which could serve as effective alternatives to the standard peptide‐based inhibitors. Efforts have been made to discuss the design and synthetic strategies of peptidomimetics, focusing on their ability to inhibit crucial proteins like falcipain‐2, plasmepsin, N ‐myristoyltransferase, farnesyltransferase, and M1 alanyl‐aminopeptidase, covering the literature reports available to date.