Synonyms: β-artemether | beta-artemether
artemether is an approved drug (FDA (2009) in combination with lumefantrine)
Compound class:
Synthetic organic
Comment: Artemether is a semisynthetic derivative of artemisinin, a natural product isolated from the qinghao or sweet wormwood plant (Artemisia annua). Synthesis yields two crystalline anomers, α- and β-artemether, the latter predominates and is marginally more active [2].
Artemether is a prodrug that is converted to the active metabolite artenimol (dihydroartemisinin). The Malaria tab on this ligand page provides additional curator comments of relevance to the Guide to MALARIA PHARMACOLOGY. Ligand Activity Visualisation ChartsThese are box plot that provide a unique visualisation, summarising all the activity data for a ligand taken from ChEMBL and GtoPdb across multiple targets and species. Click on a plot to see the median, interquartile range, low and high data points. A value of zero indicates that no data are available. A separate chart is created for each target, and where possible the algorithm tries to merge ChEMBL and GtoPdb targets by matching them on name and UniProt accession, for each available species. However, please note that inconsistency in naming of targets may lead to data for the same target being reported across multiple charts. ✖ |
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Guide to Malaria Pharmacology Comments |
Artemether has potent antimalarial activity against the asexual blood stage of P. falciparum (including chloroquine-resistant strains) and is characterised by an extremely rapid parasitemia clearance. Potential Target/Mechanism Of Action: As the precise mechanism of action of artemether is not yet known, we do not have a molecular target for this compound. |