Innovative Antimalarial Therapeutics: From Discovery to Translation

Malaria remains one of the world's most devastating infectious diseases and continues to impose a substantial global health burden despite significant advances in vector control, diagnostics, and chemotherapy. The emergence and spread of resistance to artemisinin-based combination therapies and partner drugs threaten recent progress and highlight the urgent need for new therapeutic strategies. At the same time, antimalarial drug discovery is undergoing a fundamental shift, driven by advances in medicinal chemistry, natural-product research, drug repurposing, computational approaches, and a growing understanding of host–parasite interactions. Rather than relying on a single discovery strategy, the field is increasingly integrating complementary therapeutic approaches. These complementary strategies are expanding opportunities to identify safer, more effective, and clinically translatable interventions. Bringing these rapidly evolving approaches together provides a timely opportunity to accelerate innovation and address current and future challenges in malaria treatment.The goal of this Research Topic is to establish a platform for integrative antimalarial therapeutics, bringing together complementary discovery strategies that have traditionally evolved independently. Although significant progress has been made in identifying new antimalarial candidates, research efforts are often conducted within isolated disciplines, limiting opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and the exchange of innovative concepts. By integrating diverse therapeutic approaches, this Research Topic aims to foster a more comprehensive framework for discovering, optimizing, and translating effective antimalarial interventions.This Research Topic aims to bridge research spanning natural product-based drug discovery, medicinal chemistry and lead optimization, drug repurposing, host-directed therapeutic strategies, and computational approaches that support therapeutic development. By encouraging interactions among researchers from parasitology, pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, molecular biology, computational sciences, and translational medicine, this collection seeks to promote multidisciplinary collaborations and facilitate the progression of promising therapeutic candidates from early discovery to preclinical and clinical evaluation. Ultimately, this Research Topic aims to advance innovative therapeutic solutions that contribute to improved malaria treatment and support global malaria control and elimination efforts.This Research Topic welcomes Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, Perspectives, and Opinion articles that advance the discovery, optimization, and translation of novel antimalarial therapeutics. We invite submissions addressing, but not limited to, the following themes: Natural products and natural product-derived antimalarial compounds, lead optimization, and synthetic therapeutics, Drug repurposing and repositioning, Host-directed therapeutic strategies, Combination therapies to improve efficacy and overcome drug resistance, Structure-based, computational, and AI-assisted drug discovery, Novel therapeutic targets and mechanisms of action, Pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, efficacy, and safety evaluation, Preclinical and translational studies supporting antimalarial drug development.Particularly encouraged are studies that integrate complementary discovery and therapeutic strategies or bridge multiple disciplines, reflecting the concept of an integrative platform for antimalarial therapeutics. Topic editors: Saurabh Kumar, Vigyasa Singh, Prince Joshi Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85003/innovative-antimalarial-therapeutics-from-discovery-to-translation