In the face of the recent pandemic and emergence of infectious diseases of viral origin, research on parasitic diseases such as malaria continues to remain critical and innovative methods are required to target the rising widespread resistance that renders conventional therapies unusable. The prolific use of auxiliary metallo-fragments has augmented the search for novel drug regimens in an attempt to combat rising resistance. The development of organometallic compounds (those containing metal-carbon bonds) as antimalarial drugs has been exemplified by the clinical development of ferroquine in the nascent field of Bioorganometallic Chemistry. With their inherent physicochemical properties, organometallic complexes can modulate the discipline of chemical biology by proffering different modes of action and targeting various enzymes. With the beneficiation of platinum group metals (PGMs) in mind, this review aims to describe recent studies on the antimalarial activity of PGM-based organometallic complexes. This review does not provide an exhaustive coverage of the literature but focusses on recent advances of bioorganometallic antimalarial drug leads, including a brief mention of recent trends comprising interactions with biomolecules such as heme and intracellular catalysis. This resource can be used in parallel with complementary reviews on metal-based complexes tested against malaria.

A tailored series of coumarin-based ferrocenyl 1,3-oxazine hybrid compounds was synthesized and investigated for potential antiparasitic activity, drawing inspiration from the established biological efficacy of the constituent chemical motifs. The structural identity of the synthesized compounds was confirmed by common spectroscopic techniques: NMR, HRMS and IR. Biological evaluation studies reveal that the compounds exhibit higher in vitro antiparasitic potency against the chemosensitive malarial strain (3D7 P. falciparum) over the investigated trypanosomiasis causal agent (T. b. brucei 427) with mostly single digit micromolar IC₅₀ values. When read in tandem with the biological performance of previously reported structurally similar non-coumarin, phenyl derivatives (i.e., ferrocenyl 1,3-benzoxazines and α-aminocresols), structure-activity relationship analyses suggest that the presence of the coumarin nucleus is tolerated for biological activity though this may lead to reduced efficacy. Preliminary mechanistic studies with the most promising compound (11b) support hemozoin inhibition and DNA interaction as likely mechanistic modalities by which this class of compounds may act to produce plasmocidal and antitrypanosomal effects.