Design and synthesis of potent antimalarial agents based on clotrimazole scaffold : exploring an innovative pharmacophore

Identification of new molecular scaffolds structurally unrelated to known antimalarials may represent a valid strategy to overcome resistance of P. falciparum (Pf) to currently available drugs. We describe herein the investigation of a new polycyclic pharmacophore, related to clotrimazole, to develop innovative antimalarial agents. This study allowed us to discover compounds characterized by a high in vitro potency, particularly against Pf CQ-resistant strains selectively targeting free heme, which are easy to synthesize by low-cost synthetic strategies.