Developing New Drugs to Tackle Antimalarial Resistance
Drug resistance threatens progress in the battle against malaria. To enable discovery of new antimalarials, Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA (known as MSD outside of the US and Canada) shared aspartyl protease inhibitors with researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), Australia. With Wellcome Trust Pathfinder Award support, Merck & Co. and the WEHI researchers are developing compounds targeting plasmepsin V, a key parasite enzyme.
Improving Onchocerca Detection
The World Health Organization estimates that over 25 million people suffer from onchocerciasis globally. Available diagnostics are unable to detect impalpable adult worms that reside deep beneath the skin, resulting in the standardization of long-term, preventative drug treatments that can endure for over 20 years corresponding to the worm lifespan. Dr. Stephen Ghogomu at the University of Buea has identified two secretary proteins as potential biomarkers for adult-stage onchocerciasis. He has shared the amplified PCR products with Dr. Horacio Bach at the University of British Columbia, who will express and share the recombinant antigens with Dr. Ghogomu to test the antibody response via ELISA with the goal of developing an on-site antibody-based device to detect adult stage O. volvulus.
Bcl-2 Inhibitors Against Parasitic Diseases
Parasitic infections currently affect over one billion people around the world, including millions of people in the U.S. each year. Drs. Alexis Kaushansky and Bart Staker at the Center for Infectious Disease Research (CIDR) are working to further anti-parasitic drug discovery. They have previously demonstrated Bcl-2 family inhibitors efficacy in Plasmodium and Toxoplasma models of infection. To support their efforts to expand screening against other neglected parasitic infections, Takeda will provide the investigators with Bcl-2 family inhibitors to kill parasite infected cells including P.falciparum, P.vivax, C.parvum, T.cruzi, Toxoplasma, and Leishmania sps. To further support this project, BVGH has provided a Letter of Support for the CIDR researchers’ NIH grant application.
