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Scientists find promising results in mice for a potential new drug
A NEW discovery in the fight against malaria could pave the way to the next generation of medicines within five to six years if tests go well, say researchers.
Scientists at the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD), based in Singapore, are working with a new synthetic compound called spiroindolone NITD609 discovered when Novartis Research Foundation in California tested 12,000 different compounds against the malaria parasite.
This compound was found to be effective in destroying the parasite in mice without toxic side effects.
The work was funded by a five-year grant from a consortium comprising the Wellcome Trust, Medicines for Malaria Venture and Singapore’s Economic Development Board. The findings were published in top US journal Science earlier this month.
The compound is currently going through safety tests and human trials will hopefully begin by the end of the year, possibly in Australia.
Professor Paul Herrling, chairman of the NITD board, said: “Usually a new drug has a 20 per cent chance of making it but we think this one has a better chance than that.”
The new drug holds promise as it is different from current plant-derived medicines used, so the malaria parasite would initially be defenceless against the drug and there are signs that it might kill the parasite faster.
Current anti-malarials from Novartis use ingredients derived from a sweet wormwood plant called Artemisia annua, used as a traditional Chinese medicine and discovered to have aided the Vietcong during the Vietnam War.
“They require eight pills a day for three days and often those infected do not complete the course, which means they don’t recover and they also help the parasite build up a tolerance to existing drugs,” said Prof Herrling, who has himself had malaria.
There is still some way to go. After safety and initial human trials have been completed, said Prof Herrling, the new compound may need to be combined with another molecule to increase its potency and reduce the chance of resistance.
Dr Laurent Renia, from the Singapore Immunology Network under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research which helped in the research, said the drug showed potential.
“Parasites resistant to all anti-malarial drugs (such as chloroquine) have been found. Even up till last year, parasites resistant to artemisinin derivatives have been found at the border of Thailand and Cambodia. So there is a need to find new drugs for this disease,” he said.
Malaria is spread by a parasite transferred to humans through the bite of an infected Anopheles mosquito. The parasite infects and destroys red blood cells, causing fever and flu-like symptoms, such as chills, muscle aches, vomiting and diarrhoea. Severe malaria, if untreated, can lead to death.
It is preventable and curable, yet the World Health Organisation reports that in 2008 there were about 247 million cases of malaria, causing nearly one million deaths, mostly among young children in Africa.
In Singapore, eight out of 138 cases reported so far this year caught the disease here. Last year, 35 of the 172 cases reported caught the disease here.
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