Difference Between Artemisinin And Dihydroartemisinin

The world health organization (WHO) guidelines is the use of ACT in the treatment of malaria in Nigeria. ACT means Artemisinin combination therapy.

Dihydroartemisinin

There are five classes of ACT. They contain either Artemisinin or dihydroartemisinin in combination with other antimalarials. What is the difference between Artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin? Let us find out.

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Difference Between Artemisinin And Dihydroartemisinin

When we take drugs containing artemisinin, artesunate, artemether, etc, it is converted to dihydroartemisinin. Artemether is metabolized in the human body to the active metabolite, dihydroartemisinin, primarily by hepatic enzymes CYP3A4/5. Both the parent drug and active metabolite are eliminated with a half-life of about 2 hours.

Artesunate is a prodrug that is rapidly converted to its active form dihydroartemisinin (DHA). This process involves hydrolysis of the 4-carbon ester group via plasma esterase enzyme.

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 Dihydroartemisinin is the active metabolite of all artemisinin compounds. It is a semi-synthetic derivative of artemisinin and is widely used as an intermediate in the preparation of other artemisinin-derived antimalarial drugs.