Changing ideas on chloroquine in Plasmodium falciparum

For 40 years scientists have hotly debated the questions of how chloroquine kills malarial parasites and how resistance to this once first-line antima larial drug has evolved. While an end to these debates is not in sight, as a result of the complexity of the subject, new findings have come forward t hat give the discussion a new direction. In this paper we will summarize cu rrent knowledge on chloroquine's antimalarial mode of action and the genesi s of the resistant phenotype in the human malarial parasite Plasmodium falc iparum, with special emphasis on the most recent developments in this field . Curr Opin Infect Dis 13:653-658. (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.