Metallocene-based antimalarials: An exploration into the influence of the ferrocenyl moiety on in vitro antimalarial activity in chloroquine-sensitive and chloroquine-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum Original Research Article

To establish the role of the ferrocenyl moiety in the antiplasmodial activity of ferroquine, compounds in which this moiety is replaced by the corresponding ruthenium-based moieties were synthesized and evaluated. In both the sensitive (D10) and resistant (K1) strains of Plasmodium falciparum, ruthenoquine analogues showed comparable potency to ferroquine. This suggests that a probable role of the ferrocenyl fragment is to serve simply as a hydrophobic spacer group. In addition, ferroquine analogues with different aromatic substituents were synthesized and evaluated. Unexpectedly high activity for quinoline compounds lacking the 7-chloro substituent suggests the ferrocenyl moiety may have an additive and/or synergistic effect.