Research by scientists at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and UMass published today in PLOS ONE may point the way toward a new model for malaria treatment that could also be a socioeconomic stimulus for developing nations

Worcester, Mass. – In the worldwide battle to curtail malaria, one of the most prevalent and deadly infectious diseases of the developing world, drug after drug has fallen by the wayside as the malaria parasite has become resistant to it. Only artemisinin, derived from the sweet wormwood plant, Artemisia annua, remains as an effective treatment, but it is expensive to produce (particularly when combined with other antimalarial medications to make it less prone to resistance) and is frequently in short supply.

A new study by scientists at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and the University of Massachusetts has shown that the powdered dried leaves from theArtemisia annua plant may be a far more effective antimalarial treatment than purified artemisinin, delivering 40 times more artemisinin to the blood and reducing the level of parasite infection more completely in mice. The effectiveness of the whole plant, versus the purified drug, may be due, in part, to the presence in Artemisia annua leaves of other compounds, including flavonoids also known to have antimalarial abilities, which may create a combination therapy that works synergistically to combat the parasite and ward off resistance.

These are some of the conclusions of a paper titled “Dried whole plantArtemisia annua as an antimalarial therapy,” published online today by the journal PLOS ONE .

Using the dried whole plant, instead of purified artemisinin, could significantly lower the cost of treating malaria, since it would eliminate the need to extract the drug from the plant and purify it, and could greatly expand access to antimalarial therapy, according to Pamela Weathers, professor of biology and biotechnology at WPI and a co-author of the new study. “Artemisia can be grown readily in most climates,” she says. “It is a relatively simple process to harvest the leaves, pulverize them, test samples for their potency, measure out doses, and put them in capsules. This could become the basis for local businesses and be a wonderful socioeconomic stimulus in developing countries.”

Weathers has been studying the antimalarial abilities of Artemisia annua for more than two decades. She first described the efficacy of using of the whole plant as an antimalarial treatment in a 2011 paper published inPhotochemistry Reviews. In the latest study, a high-yield cultivar of the plant developed in her lab was administered to mice by her team, led by Stephen Rich, a molecular parasitologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The effects of the whole plant therapy were compared to the effects of comparable doses of pure artemisinin.

The researchers found that mice receiving a dose of the dried leaves containing a low level of artemisinin showed a significantly greater reduction in blood-borne parasites over the course of 12 to 72 hours than mice receiving the same dose of the pure artemisinin drug. When plant material containing a high level of artemisinin was given to mice, the whole plant was as effective as a high dose of the drug in clearing parasites from the blood. Interestingly, plant material with a low level of artemisinin was as effective in killing parasites as a high dose of the drug, although its effects seemed to wane after 72 hours, suggesting that multiple doses would be necessary to fully treat a malarial infection.

Weathers says the effectiveness of the whole plant treatment seems to be due, in part, to the fact that artemisinin from the dried leaves enters the bloodstream far more readily than the pure drug. “In our 2011 study, we showed that it takes about 40 times less artemisinin to achieve a comparable blood serum level when the compound is administered in the form of the whole plant,” she says. “This is consistent with the results of earlier studies in which people consumed teas made from whole leaves fromArtemisia annua.”

Weathers says the effectiveness of using the whole plant as a therapy is likely a product of the plant’s complex biochemistry. “The leaves of Artemisiacontain a host of compounds that are of interest for their apparent but lesser antimalarial abilities,” she says. “These include at least six flavonoids that have been shown to work synergistically with artemisinin to kill malaria parasites. This makes the artemisia leaves a combination therapy all by themselves. In fact, we have referred to the whole plant as pACT (plant Artemisinin Combination Therapy), to distinguish it from the Artemisinin Combination Therapies (ACT) that are now recommended for malaria treatment by the World Health Organization.

Artemisia annua is classified as a “generally regarded as safe” (GRAS) herb that has been consumed by humans and used as an herbal therapy for thousands of years. Weathers says she has been actively working for several years to establish the foundation for a new model for using whole plant therapy to combat malaria. She said she envisions local operations where farmers would grow the high-producing cultivars of Artemisia she and others have developed as a supplemental crop and deliver the leaves to processing stations, where they would be dried, pulverized, and homogenized, and where the powder would be placed in capsules or compacted into tablets.

“By decentralizing the production of pACT, and giving local farmers and business people the opportunity to earn a living from producing it, we will not only make an effective therapy broadly available at an affordable price, we will help stimulate the economies of developing nations. It is exciting to be involved with a project that can be beneficial in so many ways.

“When you consider that artemisinin and some of the flavonoids in Artemisia annua have been to have a therapeutic effect against host of other diseases, including Leishmania, schistosomiasis, and other ailments that are serious health hazards in the developing world, the long-term possibilities of this research grow exponentially.”

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Sure, smartphones are smart. But how smart? Advanced enough to let doctors help diagnose and treat stroke patients who might be hundreds of miles away from where they are.

A new study by the Mayo Clinic finds that the quality or brain scans and other medical images sent via smartphone are comparable to those viewed by desktop computers. The results confirm that smartphones can be effective in real-world telestroke healthcare (that is, health care delivered to stroke patients via phone applications).

“Essentially what this means is that telemedicine can fit in our pockets,” said Bart Demaerschalk, a professor of neurology and medical director of Mayo Clinic Telestroke. “For patients this means access to expertise in a timely fashion when they need it most, no matter what emergency room they may find themselves.”

In telestroke care, telemedicine platforms or robots in rural hospitals let a stroke patient be seen in real time by a neurology specialist located elsewhere. Mayo Clinic was the first medical center in Arizona to study telemedicine for stroke patients in non-urban settings, and is now the hub in a network of 12 telestroke centers, most of them in Arizona.

“If we can transmit health information securely and simultaneously use the video conferencing capabilities for clinical assessments, we can have telemedicine anywhere, which is essential in a state like Arizona where more than 40 percent of the population doesn’t have access to immediate neurologic care,” said Demaerschalk.

So far, the Mayo Clinic Telestroke Network has provided more than 1,000 emergency consultations for stroke.

Fast diagnoses of stroke can enable doctors to administer clot-busting medications within the narrow window of time in which permanent injury to a patient’s brain can be prevented. Telestroke care can also reduce costs by avoiding the need for ground or air ambulance transfer of patients to other medical centers.

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Scientists at the University of Liverpool are leading a £1.65 million project to produce and test the first nanomedicines for treating HIV/AIDS.

The research project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), aims to produce cheaper, more effective medicines which have fewer side effects and are easier to give to newborns and children.

The new therapy options were generated by modifying existing HIV treatments, called antiretrovirals (ARVs). The University has recently produced ARV drug particles at the nanoscale which potentially reduce the toxicity and variability in the response different patients have to therapies. Drug nanoparticles have been shown to allow smaller doses in other disease areas which opens up possibilities to reduce drug side-effects and the risk of drug resistance. Nanoscale objects are less than one micron in size – a human hair is approximately 80 microns in diameter.

Professor Steve Rannard, from the University’s Department of Chemistry, said: “Nanomedicines are being used daily to treat a range of conditions around the world. There are, however, no current nanoparticle HIV therapies that are providing this kind of patient benefit. This project is the first step towards taking the nanomedicine options that we have developed out of our labs and into the clinic, representing a significant milestone in the development of new HIV treatments.

“If we can demonstrate real potential from our planned clinical work with healthy volunteers at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, then our collaboration partner, IOTA NanoSolutions, will take forward the further development and clinical validation of the ARV drug particles in HIV patients. We also aim to test new formulations for children in developing countries, offering HIV patients around the world the prospect of safer, more effective treatments.”

Professor Andrew Owen, from the University’s Department of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, added: “We have integrated an assessment of pharmacology and safety early in the research and this has allowed us to rapidly progress lead options for clinical trials. The work has been conducted with the Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Drug Safety Science also based at the University.”

“Our data so far looks really exciting, offering the potential to reduce the doses required to control the HIV virus. This work builds on initiatives by Médecins Sans Frontières and other groups to seek ways to improve ARV therapy and could have real benefits for the safety of ARVs globally. Importantly we also hope to reduce the costs of therapy for resource-limited countries where the burden of disease is highest.”

HIV continues to increase in prevalence, with 34 million people currently infected worldwide. The new HIV therapies offer particular hope for treating children with HIV which affects 3.4 million children under the age of 15 years in Sub Saharan Africa. About 90% of infected infants acquire the virus through mother-to-child transmission. Without treatment one third of children die within their first year of life.

There are currently very limited child-appropriate HIV drugs available and existing treatments carry a range of risks for the infant including under or over dosing. The new HIV nanomedicines from the Liverpool team disperse into water, which will make them easier to administer, particularly to newborn babies.

The project will manufacture the ARV nanomedicines using commercially relevant techniques under clinical grade manufacturing conditions. IOTA NanoSolutions was created to further develop and exploit technology originally developed at the University of Liverpool. The company operates a novel nanoparticle synthesis technology, ContraSol™ and is working with major global pharmaceutical companies. The ARV programme represents a further extension to the ongoing collaboration between the University of Liverpool and IOTA NanoSolutions.

The project aims to deliver highly valuable data within three years and provide a platform for continual development and testing during that time.

David Delpy, Chief Executive of the EPSRC, said: “The EPSRC is continuing its strong investment in nano-related research, which now permeates through almost every aspect of the engineering and physical sciences. This research may bring significant benefits to children infected with the HIV virus.

“It demonstrates how the vast potential of the fundamental science of nanotechnology is now being pulled through into engineering applications that help us address the societal challenges we face in healthcare and other areas.”

The project builds on a previous collaboration funded by the Research Councils UK Nano Grand Challenge scheme.

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A new technology which delivers sustained release of therapeutics for up to six months could be used in conditions which require routine injections, including diabetes, certain forms of cancer and potentially HIV/AIDS.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have developed injectable, reformable and spreadable hydrogels which can be loaded with proteins or other therapeutics. The hydrogels contain up to 99.7% water by weight, with the remainder primarily made up of cellulose polymers held together with cucurbiturils – barrel-shaped molecules which act as miniature ‘handcuffs’.

“The hydrogels protect the proteins so that they remain bio-active for long periods, and allow the proteins to remain in their native state,” says Dr Oren Scherman of the Department of Chemistry, who led the research. “Importantly, all the components can be incorporated at room temperature, which is key when dealing with proteins which denature when exposed to high heat.”

The hydrogels developed by Scherman, Dr Xian Jun Loh and PhD student Eric Appel are capable of delivering sustained release of the proteins they contain for up to six months, compared with the current maximum of three months. The rate of release can be controlled according to the ratio of materials in the hydrogel.

Not only do these hydrogels double the window of content release, they use far less non-water material than current technology. The extra material serves as a type of scaffolding holding the hydrogel together, but it can affect performance of the cargo contained within it, so the less structure-forming material contained within the hydrogel, the more effectively it will perform.

As drug therapy moves away from small molecule drugs toward protein-based therapy, applications such hormone therapy, wound healing and insulin treatment would all be ideal applications for the hydrogels.

For example, more than a quarter of the 2.9 million individuals in the UK who have diabetes have to inject themselves daily with insulin in order to control blood glucose levels. Containing the insulin within a hydrogel could potentially reduce the number of annual injections from 365 to just two.

The long-term sustained release would be especially useful in resource-deprived or rural settings where patients requiring daily medication may not have regular access to a doctor. “There’s been a lot of research that shows patients who need to take a pill each day for the rest of their lives, especially HIV patients in Africa who do not show any obvious symptoms, will take the pills for a maximum of six months before they stop, negating the point of taking the medication in the first place,” says Appel. “If patients only have to take one shot which will give them six month’s worth of medication, we’ll have a much greater chance of affecting an entire population and slowing or stopping the progression of a disease.”

The team are currently working with researchers from the Brain Repair Centre in the Department of Clinical Medicine on how the technology might be used as a possible treatment for brain cancer.

The research was published recently in the journal Biomaterials and has been patented by Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s commercialisation group.

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Publishers note: (FSG); Healthcare is a sector ripe for innovation in many African countries.

A theoretical framework of entrepreneurship and innovation in healthcare organisations
Vanessa Ratten
International Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Vol. 1, No. 3 (2012) pp. 223 – 238
This paper examines the role of entrepreneurship and innovation in the context of healthcare management by offering a number of research propositions. In recent years, hospitals have attracted ever growing commentary about rising costs and the need for improving information technology systems. Whilst there have been some service innovations introduced from other industries, particularly the manufacturing industry, there have been few service innovations originating from the healthcare sector. In the healthcare sector, there are a number of service innovations, which are discussed in this paper in terms of their relevance to managerial roles of hospital staff members. In addition, this paper examines the role of entrepreneurial managers in determining innovative technology behaviour in healthcare organisations. Literature from innovation management, corporate intrapreneurship and healthcare management is used to explain the findings of this paper and future areas of research are also proposed.

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(Brown University) Policymakers in the fight against HIV/AIDS may have to wait years, even decades, to know whether strategic choices among possible interventions are effective. How can they make informed choices in an age of limited funding? A reliable, well-calibrated, predictive computer simulation to be presented by a Brown University researcher could be a great help.
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Could a low-cost screening device connected to a cell phone save thousands of women and children from anemia-related deaths and disabilities?

That’s the goal of Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering undergraduates who’ve developed a noninvasive way to identify women with this dangerous blood disorder in developing nations. The device, HemoGlobe, is designed to convert the existing cell phones of health workers into a “prick-free” system for detecting and reporting anemia at the community level.

The device’s sensor, placed on a patient’s fingertip, shines different wavelengths of light through the skin to measure the hemoglobin level in the blood. On a phone’s screen, a community health worker quickly sees a color-coded test result, indicating cases of anemia, from mild to moderate and severe.

If anemia is detected, a patient would be encouraged to follow a course of treatment, ranging from taking iron supplements to visiting a clinic or hospital for potentially lifesaving measures. After each test, the phone would send an automated text message with a summary of the results to a central server, which would produce a real-time map showing where anemia is prevalent. This information could facilitate follow-up care and help health officials to allocate resources where the need is most urgent.

Soumyadipta Acharya, an assistant research professor in Johns Hopkins’ Department of Biomedical Engineering and the project’s faculty advisor and principal investigator, said the device could be important in reducing anemia-related deaths in developing countries. International health experts estimate that anemia contributes to 100,000 maternal deaths and 600,000 newborn deaths annually.

“This device has the potential to be a game-changer,” Acharya said. “It will equip millions of health care workers across the globe to quickly and safely detect and report this debilitating condition in pregnant women and newborns.”

The HemoGlobe student inventors have estimated their cell phone-based systems could be produced for $10 to $20 each. At the recent Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development competition, the potential public health benefits of this device won over the judges, who awarded a $250,000 seed grant to the Johns Hopkins students’ project. The event, which attracted more than 500 entrants from 60 countries, was sponsored by prominent global health organizations, including the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Only 12 entrants received seed grants.

“When we thought about the big-name corporations and nonprofit groups we were competing against, we were amazed and surprised to find out that our team had won,” said George Chen, 19, of Hacienda Heights, Calif., a sophomore majoring in biomedical engineering. Chen attended the July 14 announcement in Seattle, along with Acharya and team members Noah Greenbaum and Justin Rubin.

For a biomedical engineering design team class assignment, the students spent a year brainstorming and building a prototype. The seed grant will allow the team to refine its technology and support field testing next year in Kenya by Jhpiego, a Johns Hopkins affiliate that provides global health training and services for women and their families. Jhpiego sponsored the HemoGlobe project through a partnership with the university’s Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design.

Team member Greenbaum, 21, of Watchung, N.J, a senior majoring in biomedical and electrical engineering, has continued working on the anemia system this summer.

“The first year we just focused on proving that the technology worked,” he said. “Now, we have a greater challenge: to prove that it can have a real impact by detecting anemia and making sure the mothers get the care they need.”

The student inventors were looking for a new way to curb a stubborn health problem in developing nations. Anemia occurs when a person has too few healthy red blood cells, which carry critical oxygen throughout the body. This is often due to a lack of iron, and therefore a lack of hemoglobin, the iron-based protein that helps red blood cells store and release oxygen. Anemic mothers face many complications before and during birth, including death from blood loss associated with the delivery. In addition, a baby that survives a birth from an anemic mother may face serious health problems.

Health officials in developing countries have tried to respond by making iron supplements widely available. According to Acharya, however, the problem of anemia remains intractable. “So we looked at it from a different angle,” he said.

In places where medical care is easily accessible, doctors routinely test pregnant women for anemia and prescribe treatment, including routine iron supplementation. But in developing regions where medical help is not always nearby, the condition may go undetected. Community health workers with limited training do, however, serve these areas.

“The team members realized that every community health worker already carries a powerful computer in their pocket — their cell phone,” Acharya said. “So we didn’t have to build a computer for our screening device, and we didn’t have to build a display. Our low-cost device will use the existing cell phones of health workers to estimate and report hemoglobin levels.”

A provisional patent covering the invention has been obtained through the Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer office.

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(University of Georgia) Using nanoscale materials, researchers at the University of Georgia have developed a single-step method to rapidly and accurately detect viruses, bacteria and chemical contaminants. The scientists were able to detect compounds such as lactic acid and albumin in highly diluted samples and in mixtures that included dyes and other chemicals. Their results suggest the same system could be used to detect pathogens and contaminants in biological mixtures such as food, blood, saliva and urine.
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(University of Georgia) Using nanoscale materials, researchers at the University of Georgia have developed a single-step method to rapidly and accurately detect viruses, bacteria and chemical contaminants. The scientists were able to detect compounds such as lactic acid and albumin in highly diluted samples and in mixtures that included dyes and other chemicals. Their results suggest the same system could be used to detect pathogens and contaminants in biological mixtures such as food, blood, saliva and urine.
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New American Chemical Society Podcast

WASHINGTON, July 11, 2012 — The latest episode in the American Chemical Society’s (ACS’) award-winning Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutionspodcast series describes a new, inexpensive paper-based device designed for diabetes testing in rural areas of developing countries.

Based on a report by Jan Lankelma, Ph.D., and colleagues in ACS’ journalAnalytical Chemistry, the podcast is available without charge at iTunes and from www.acs.org/globalchallenges.

It explains the need for less-expensive methods to help people with diabetes monitor their blood sugar levels. The disease is surging in India, China and other areas of the world where poverty limits the availability of health care. Although existing diabetes test strips seem inexpensive, the cost can be prohibitive in those areas. To address these challenges, the researchers developed a new glucose monitor made from inexpensive materials that measures sugar levels in urine.

Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions is a series of podcasts describing some of the 21st century’s most daunting problems, and how cutting-edge research in chemistry matters in the quest for solutions. Global Challenges is the centerpiece in an alliance on sustainability between ACS and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Global Challenges is a sweeping panorama of global challenges that includes dilemmas such as providing a hungry and thirsty world with ample supplies of safe food and clean water, developing alternatives to petroleum to fuel society, preserving the environment and ensuring a sustainable future for our children and improving human health.

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Could pave way for development of enhanced delivery and storage in third world, save billions in cost

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed a new silk-based stabilizer that, in the laboratory, kept some vaccines and antibiotics stable up to temperatures of 140 degrees Fahrenheit. This provides a new avenue toward eliminating the need to keep some vaccines and antibiotics refrigerated, which could save billions of dollars every year and increase accessibility to third world populations.

Vaccines and antibiotics often need to be refrigerated to prevent alteration of their chemical structures; such alteration can result in less potent or ineffective medications. By immobilizing their bioactive molecules using silk protein matrices, researchers were able to protect and stabilize both live vaccines and antibiotics when stored at higher than recommended temperatures for periods far longer than recommended.

The research was led by grantees of NIH’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), David Kaplan, Ph.D., and Jeney Zhang, Ph.D. candidate, at Tufts University School of Engineering in Medford, Mass. The National Eye Institute and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research at NIH also contributed to this research. The researchers reported on their findings in the online issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on July 9, 2012.

“This truly exciting development is the culmination of years of creative exploration and research focused on a major problem in the delivery of health care. Dr. Kaplan and his team have done a masterful job at both understanding the key properties of silk, and applying these insights to a global medical challenge,” said NIBIB Director Roderic I. Pettigrew, Ph.D., M.D. “This is also a wonderful validation of the type of team science we see in our Biotechnology Resource and Development Centers and their ability to combine cutting edge science in a number of fields to a variety of health needs.”

Pettigrew also points out that the next step is to test it in the field.

Keeping medications cold from production until they are used in treatment is a costly process, accounting for as much as 80 percent of the price of vaccinations. The need for a cold chain has been a difficulty for health care providers, aid organizations, scientists and pharmaceutical companies for decades, especially in settings where electricity is limited. Failures in the chain result in the loss of nearly half of all global vaccines, according to researchers.

In an attempt to solve this problem, Kaplan and his lab have been working extensively with silk films that essentially wrap up the live bioactive molecules present in antibiotics and vaccines. This protects these essential bioactive elements, and so can greatly extend the shelf-life of the medication. Silk is used because it is a protein polymer with a chemistry, structure, and assembly that can generate a unique environment, making it an attractive candidate for the stabilization of bioactive molecules over extended periods of time.

To test their new silk stabilizers, Kaplan’s team stored the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines for six months at the recommended 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit, as well as at 77, 98.6 , and 113 degrees Fahrenheit. The results show that encapsulation in the new silk films maintained the potency with minimal loss over time and enhanced stability, even at very high storage temperatures. Similarly, antibiotics entrapped in silk films maintained near optimal activity even at temperatures as high as 140 degrees. In addition, Kaplan’s group found that these silk films had the added benefit of protecting one antibiotic against the detrimental effects of light exposure.

The silk stabilizers are likely to combine well with Kaplan’s previously developed silk microneedle system. These tiny needles can deliver medication directly to skin cells that contain a specified antigen. This targeted approach permits administration of lower doses of medication or vaccine and generates longer-lasting immune responses. The combination could prove to be a simple way to stabilize, distribute, and deliver the medication in one system.

Thus, for vaccines and antibiotics, the use of a silk carrier reduces the detrimental effects of heat and humidity.

“New studies are already under way,” says Dr. Kaplan. “We have already begun trying to broaden the impact of what we’re doing to apply to all vaccines. Based on what we’ve seen with other proteins, peptides, and enzymes, there’s no reason to believe that this wouldn’t be universal. This could potentially eliminate the need for a cold-chain system, greatly decreasing costs and enabling more widespread availability of these life-saving drugs.”

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Pharmaceutical research

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have previously documented that substances from the South African plant species Crinum and Cyrtanthus – akin to snowdrops and daffodils – have an effect on the mechanisms in the brain that are involved in depression. This research has now yielded further results, since a team based at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences has recently shown how several South African daffodils contain plant compounds whose characteristics enable them to negotiate the defensive blood-brain barrier that is a key challenge in all new drug development.

“Several of our plant compounds can probably be smuggled past the brain’s effective barrier proteins. We examined various compounds for their influence on the transporter proteins in the brain. This study was made in a genetically-modified cell model of the blood-brain barrier that contains high levels of the transporter P-glycoprotein. Our results are promising, and several of the chemical compounds studied should therefore be tested further, as candidates for long-term drug development,” says Associate Professor Birger Brodin.

“The biggest challenge in medical treatment of diseases of the brain is that the drug cannot pass through the blood-brain barrier. The blood vessels of the brain are impenetrable for most compounds, one reason being the very active transporter proteins. You could say that the proteins pump the drugs out of the cells just as quickly as they are pumped in. So it is of great interest to find compounds that manage to ‘trick’ this line of defence.”

The results of the study have been published in the Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology.

New cooperation between biologists and organic chemists

It will nonetheless be a long time before any possible new drug reaches our pharmacy shelves:

“This is the first stage of a lengthy process, so it will take some time before we can determine which of the plant compounds can be used in further drug development,” says Birger Brodin.

Yet this does not curb his enthusiasm for the opportunities from the interdisciplinary cooperation with organic scientists from the Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology and the Natural History Museum of Denmark.

“In my research group, we have had a long-term focus on the body’s barrier tissue – and in recent years particularly the transport of drug compounds across the blood-brain barrier. More than 90 per cent of all potential drugs fail the test by not making it through the barrier, or being pumped out as soon as they do get in. Studies of natural therapies are a valuable source of inspiration, giving us knowledge that can also be used in other contexts,” Birger Brodin emphasises.
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Germany’s ongoing financial support to developing Africa’s pharmaceutical industry will be increased by EUR 1 million.

This was announced today by Dirk Niebel, the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, during a meeting with Kandeh K. Yumkella, the Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). 

“Only a well-functioning African private sector can sustainably improve access to essential medicines for the poor,” said Niebel.

“I fully support the African pharmaceutical industry in its efforts to improve its market position and the quality of its products, as well as to strengthen its influence over bureaucratic structures and unfair competition. This is also an important element in our fight against counterfeit drugs, which threaten the local generics industry and endanger human lives around the world.”

Since 2006, Germany has contributed over EUR 70 million to develop the African pharmaceutical industry and foster the production of essential medicines, making it by far the most important donor to this cause. UNIDO is Germany’s key international partner in the promotion of local pharmaceutical production.

The new funding is expected to contribute to implementation of UNIDO’s Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa a joint endeavor with the African Union Commission.

Director-General Kandeh K. Yumkella also met with parliamentary representatives in the Bundestag to discuss the prospects for Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development that will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 20 to 22 June.

The German Government said it plans to support the 2013 Vienna Energy Forum hosted by UNIDO, and will organize a joint event with UNIDO during the 2013 World Skills international crafts championship in Leipzig.

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A new technique that accurately determines the risk of infants in endemic countries developing clinical malaria could provide a valuable tool for evaluating new malaria prevention strategies and vaccines.

The technique could even help to understand how anti-malarial vaccine and treatment strategies act to reduce malaria, say researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basel and the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research.

Professor Ivo Mueller from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute said the research team discovered that the number of new malaria parasites that infants acquire over time is strongly linked to the risk that the child will develop clinical disease.

“It was very clear that infection with new and genetically different malaria parasites was the single biggest factor in determining the risk of an infant becoming sick from malaria, more than any other factor including age, the use of bed nets or the risk of transmission in the area. We were actually surprised by how clear the correlation was,” Professor Mueller said.

The molecular technique to genetically differentiate Plasmodium falciparum parasites was developed by Dr Ingrid Felger at the Department of Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Switzerland. Professor Terry Speed from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute’s Bioinformatics division helped to develop mathematical algorithms to process the data.

Dr Felger said the researchers used high-throughput screening to determine the number of genetically-distinct Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasites that acquired by Papua New Guinean children aged one to four over a period of 16 months. The research was published today in the journalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

“This new research tool is elegantly simple but very powerful, and easily applicable in many circumstances, without a high level of technology or training,” Dr Felger said. “We think it could have profound applications. This technology will be particularly useful for assessing ideal vaccine candidates for preventing malaria, help to develop better ways of performing future human trials of new potential malaria vaccines, and identifying the mechanism of action for existing vaccines and treatments.”

Each year more than 250 million people worldwide contract malaria, and up to one million people die. Malaria is particularly dangerous for children under five and pregnant women. Plasmodium falciparum is the most lethal of the four Plasmodium species, and is responsible for most clinical disease.

Professor Mueller said the technology is already being used in the field, recently helping to explain why people with sickle-cell anaemia are less at risk of malaria infection. He said that accurately assessing the burden of malaria parasites acquired by children in countries where the disease is endemic is invaluable.

“One of our biggest problems in developing useful vaccines, treatments and preventative strategies for malaria is reliably predicting the distribution and risk of malaria at an individual level. There is huge variation in the risk of developing clinical malaria within a community or village, or within a particular age group, and we now have an accurate way to measure this,” Professor Mueller said.

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Scientists are reporting development of a new, higher-yield, two-step, less costly process that may ease supply problems and zigzagging prices for the raw material essential for making the mainstay drug for malaria. That disease sickens 300-500 million people annually and kills more than 1 million. The report on the process, which uses readily available substances and could be easily implemented by drug companies, appears in ACS’ journal Organic Process Research & Development.

David Teager and Rodger Stringham of the Clinton Health Access Initiative explain that artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) is the most effective treatment for malaria, a parasitic infection that is transferred to humans from the bite of an infected mosquito. Artemisinin, which is used to produce the key ingredient in ACT, comes from Artemisia annua, a medicinal plant grown in China. In recent years, the price for artemisinin has undergone huge market fluctuations, ranging from about $180 to $410 per pound, due to weather conditions and the demand for ACT. Keeping costs down is important because most cases of malaria occur in developing areas in the tropics and subtropics.

The researchers reasoned that one way to help stabilize prices would be to improve the current ACT manufacturing process, which consistently yields less of the ingredient than expected. That improvement would reduce the amount of Artemisia annua needed to make ACT.

The new process is much simpler and generates less potentially hazardous waste than the current method. It also reduced the amount of artemisinin required to make ACT, which makes the process less costly. A “semisynthetic” version of artemisinin also worked well as a starting material in the new method. “We are in the process of sharing this procedure with manufacturing partners in our global fight to combat malaria,” say the researchers.

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