Desferrioxamine suppresses Plasmodium falciparum in Aotus monkeys.

Clinical observation has suggested that iron deficiency may be protective in malaria, and we have found that desferrioxamine (DF), an iron-specific chelating agent, inhibited Plasmodium falciparum growth in vitro. It was difficult to be confident that DF would be effective in an intact animal, however, because continuous exposure to DF was required in vitro and, in vivo, DF is rapidly excreted. Also, the in vitro effect of DF was overcome by addition of iron to the culture and in vivo there are potentially high local iron concentrations when iron is absorbed from the diet or released from reticuloendothelial cells. We now show that DF given by constant subcutaneous infusion does suppress parasitemia in P. falciparum-infected Aotus monkeys.