Potential of Streptomyces in producing antiplasmodial lead compounds

Streptomyces are bacteria of great importance for several decades. Numerous potent metabolites characterized as antibiotics including macrolides and polypetides have been reported from Streptomyces and developed as effective drugs for the treatment of several illnesses. Therefore, Streptomyces can be considered as an important source of bioactive compounds which might help in the eradication of malaria which remains one of the greatest threats to human life, especially in the tropical and sub-tropical regions. The reported in vitro antiplasmodial properties of chemical constituents from Streptomyces strains have led to promising results like bafilomycin A1 (9), concanamycin A (10), elaiophylin (17), cyclomarin C (23), urdamycinone E (44), geldanamycin (52) and metacycloprodigiosin (74) which individually exhibited strong antiplasmodial activity against the chloroquine-resistant strain Plasmodium falciparum K1 with IC50 values of 0.041 μg/ml, 0.2 nM, 0.22 μg/ml, 0.24 μg/ml, 0.0534 μg/ml, 0.35 μg/ml and 0.0050 μg/ml, respectively. In some cases, the tested compound was most active than the reference and without observed toxicity until the highest concentration. However, more in vivo and toxicity studies are necessary for further guidance in the process of drug development. To the best of our knowledge, no specific review has been done on the potential of Streptomyces in furnishing antiplasmodial compounds for malaria control. This paper aims to compile the literature up to 2021 on antiplasmodial compounds isolated from Streptomyces for easy and rapid access to the literature for further investigations in continuity.