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This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (BIO2007-67885 and BIO2010-17039), the Research Teams Consolidation Programme of the UCM (Research Team 920267-Comunidad de Madrid) and the Iberoamerican CYTED network No. 210RT0398. CM is supported by the Universidad de Cartagena (Colombia) and the Alban Programme of High Level Scholarships for Latin America, fellowship E07D400516CO. PMG is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. We thank Glaxo SmithKline for providing atovaquone. The excellent technical help of Susana Perez-Benavente is also aknowledged.

Analysis of institutional authors

Marin-Garcia, PatriciaAuthor

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Parasitostatic effect of maslinic acid. I. Growth arrest of Plasmodium falciparum intraerythrocytic stages

Publicated to:Malaria Journal. 10 82- - 2011-04-10 10(), DOI: 10.1186/1475-2875-10-82

Authors: Moneriz, Carlos; Marin-Garcia, Patricia; Garcia-Granados, Andres; Bautista, Jose M; Diez, Amalia; Puyet, Antonio

Affiliations

Univ Cartagena, Fac Med, Dept Bioquim, Cartagena, Colombia - Author
Univ Complutense Madrid, Fac Vet, Dept Bioquim & Biol Mol 4, E-28040 Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Complutense Madrid, Hosp 12 Octubre, Inst Invest, E-28040 Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Europea Madrid, Fac Ciencias Biomed, Dept Ciencias Morfol & Biomed, Madrid 28640, Spain - Author
Univ Granada, Fac Ciencias, Dept Quim Organ, E-18071 Granada, Spain - Author
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Abstract

Background: Natural products have played an important role as leads for the development of new drugs against malaria. Recent studies have shown that maslinic acid (MA), a natural triterpene obtained from olive pomace, which displays multiple biological and antimicrobial activities, also exerts inhibitory effects on the development of some Apicomplexan, including Eimeria, Toxoplasma and Neospora. To ascertain if MA displays anti-malarial activity, the main objective of this study was to asses the effect of MA on Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes in vitro.Methods: Synchronized P. falciparum-infected erythrocyte cultures were incubated under different conditions with MA, and compared to chloroquine and atovaquone treated cultures. The effects on parasite growth were determined by monitoring the parasitaemia and the accumulation of the different infective stages visualized in thin blood smears.Results: MA inhibits the growth of P. falciparum Dd2 and 3D7 strains in infected erythrocytes in, dose-dependent manner, leading to the accumulation of immature forms at IC50 concentrations, while higher doses produced nonviable parasite cells. MA-treated infected-erythrocyte cultures were compared to those treated with chloroquine or atovaquone, showing significant differences in the pattern of accumulation of parasitic stages. Transient MA treatment at different parasite stages showed that the compound targeted intra-erythrocytic processes from earlyring to schizont stage. These results indicate that MA has a parasitostatic effect, which does not inactivate permanently P. falciparum, as the removal of the compound allowed the infection to continueConclusions: MA displays anti-malarial activity at multiple intraerythrocytic stages of the parasite and, depending on the dose and incubation time, behaves as a plasmodial parasitostatic compound. This novel parasitostatic effect appears to be unrelated to previous mechanisms proposed for current anti-malarial drugs, and may be relevant to uncover new prospective plasmodial targets and opens novel possibilities of therapies associated to host immune response.

Keywords

AntibioticsAntimalarialsApicoplastApoptosisAtovaquoneChloroquineDerivativesErythrocytesGlycogen-phosphorylaseInhibitorsMalariaMalaria, falciparumMaslinic acidMutationsOlive oilParasitemiaPentacyclic triterpenesPlasmodium falciparumTriterpenes

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Malaria Journal due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2011, it was in position 2/21, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Tropical Medicine.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 4.51, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions Jun 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-06-21, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 34
  • Scopus: 37
  • Europe PMC: 18
  • OpenCitations: 37

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-06-21:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 77.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 77 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 3.
  • The number of mentions on Wikipedia: 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Colombia.