The Paradigm Shift of Using Natural Molecules Extracted from Northern Canada to Combat Malaria

Abstract

Parasitic diseases, such as malaria, are an immense burden to many low- and middle-income countries. In 2022, 249 million cases and 608,000 deaths were reported by the World Health Organization for malaria alone. Climate change, conflict, humanitarian crises, resource constraints and diverse biological challenges threaten progress in the elimination of malaria. Undeniably, the lack of a commercialized vaccine and the spread of drug-resistant parasites beg the need for novel approaches to treat this infectious disease. Most approaches for the development of antimalarials to date take inspiration from tropical or sub-tropical environments; however, it is necessary to expand our search. In this review, we highlight the origin of antimalarial treatments and propose new insights in the search for developing novel antiparasitic treatments. Plants and microorganisms living in harsh and cold environments, such as those found in the largely unexploited Northern Canadian boreal forest, often demonstrate interesting properties that are not found in other environments. Most prominently, the essential oil of Rhododendron tomentosum spp. Subarcticum from Nunavik and mortiamides isolated from Mortierella species found in Nunavut have shown promising activity against Plasmodium falciparum.

Keywords: Canadian boreal forest; Labrador tea; antiparasitics; antiplasmodials; malaria; metabolites; mortiamides; natural compounds; northern environments; northern molecules.

Figure 1

Life cycle of Plasmodium falciparum.