News & Events
News & Events
Institut Pasteur Korea extends contribution to the fight against neglected diseases
2010-06-30
Institut Pasteur Korea extends contribution to the fight against neglected diseases
A new agreement between the international Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative and the Institut Pasteur Korea will see institute researchers using sophisticated drug screening and development technologies to identify new candidate drugs to treat leishmaniasis and Chagas Disease.
Seoul, Korea, 30 June 2010
Tropical diseases and tuberculosis account for 11.4% of the global disease burden. Yet, between 1975 and 2004, only 1.3% of the 1,556 new drugs that were approved were specifically developed for these diseases. To address this shortfall in neglected diseases a new organization, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), was founded in 2003. DNDi set out to address the needs of patients with the most neglected diseases through collaborative, patients’ needs-driven, not-for-profit drug research and development.
One weapon now being used in the fight against neglected disease is high throughput drug screening. Once restricted to the pharmaceutical industry’s hunt for new treatments for developed countries’ diseases, “the use to of high-throughput screening to identify new drugs to treat neglected tropical diseases is among be the most important applications”, according to IP-K research leader Lucio Freitas-Junior.
The latest agreement between DNDi and IP-K, building on an already successful relationship, means that candidate drugs to treat leishmaniasis and Chagas Disease can be rapidly identified and characterized.
Leishmaniasis and Chagas disease together affect over 20 million people around the world. There are two forms of the disease: visceral leishmaniasis, which kills in excess of 50,000 people per annum, and cutaneous leishmaniasis, a disfiguring skin condition that affects 1.5 million new victims every year. Both are caused by the tiny, single-celled Leishmania parasite that is transmitted to humans by the bite of a sandfly.
Chagas disease is a tropical parasitic disease caused by the Trypanosoma cruzi. In the early, acute stage, symptoms are mild but some infected individuals go on to have chronic infection. 20-40% of these patients will eventually develop life-threatening heart and digestive system disorders.
The current drugs for both diseases have toxic side effects and can be expensive, and the parasites are showing signs of developing resistance to them. Urgent action is required to develop new medicines.
Under the new agreement between DNDi and IP-K, scientists will use PhenomicScreen™, an advanced protocol that uses robotics, data processing and control software, liquid handling devices and sensitive detectors to rapidly test tens of thousands of compounds for the ability to halt Leishmania and Trypanosoma in their tracks. “IP-K will screen third party compounds that might originate in academia, biotech or large pharma” explains Lisa Cechetto, Head of Business Development at Institut Pasteur Korea, “We will also set up disease animal models in-house to get as much useful information as possible on the lead compounds. So we are a DNDi screening center for both drug discovery and drug development”.
According to DNDi’s representative, “new technologies such as PhenomicScreen™, and new animal models that really test the efficacy of candidate drugs offer real hope that a new era of effective treatment for neglected diseases will be available in the foreseeable future. It’s an exciting, and much needed, boost for millions of the poorest people on Earth”.
A new agreement between the international Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative and the Institut Pasteur Korea will see institute researchers using sophisticated drug screening and development technologies to identify new candidate drugs to treat leishmaniasis and Chagas Disease.
Seoul, Korea, 30 June 2010
Tropical diseases and tuberculosis account for 11.4% of the global disease burden. Yet, between 1975 and 2004, only 1.3% of the 1,556 new drugs that were approved were specifically developed for these diseases. To address this shortfall in neglected diseases a new organization, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), was founded in 2003. DNDi set out to address the needs of patients with the most neglected diseases through collaborative, patients’ needs-driven, not-for-profit drug research and development.
One weapon now being used in the fight against neglected disease is high throughput drug screening. Once restricted to the pharmaceutical industry’s hunt for new treatments for developed countries’ diseases, “the use to of high-throughput screening to identify new drugs to treat neglected tropical diseases is among be the most important applications”, according to IP-K research leader Lucio Freitas-Junior.
The latest agreement between DNDi and IP-K, building on an already successful relationship, means that candidate drugs to treat leishmaniasis and Chagas Disease can be rapidly identified and characterized.
Leishmaniasis and Chagas disease together affect over 20 million people around the world. There are two forms of the disease: visceral leishmaniasis, which kills in excess of 50,000 people per annum, and cutaneous leishmaniasis, a disfiguring skin condition that affects 1.5 million new victims every year. Both are caused by the tiny, single-celled Leishmania parasite that is transmitted to humans by the bite of a sandfly.
Chagas disease is a tropical parasitic disease caused by the Trypanosoma cruzi. In the early, acute stage, symptoms are mild but some infected individuals go on to have chronic infection. 20-40% of these patients will eventually develop life-threatening heart and digestive system disorders.
The current drugs for both diseases have toxic side effects and can be expensive, and the parasites are showing signs of developing resistance to them. Urgent action is required to develop new medicines.
Under the new agreement between DNDi and IP-K, scientists will use PhenomicScreen™, an advanced protocol that uses robotics, data processing and control software, liquid handling devices and sensitive detectors to rapidly test tens of thousands of compounds for the ability to halt Leishmania and Trypanosoma in their tracks. “IP-K will screen third party compounds that might originate in academia, biotech or large pharma” explains Lisa Cechetto, Head of Business Development at Institut Pasteur Korea, “We will also set up disease animal models in-house to get as much useful information as possible on the lead compounds. So we are a DNDi screening center for both drug discovery and drug development”.
According to DNDi’s representative, “new technologies such as PhenomicScreen™, and new animal models that really test the efficacy of candidate drugs offer real hope that a new era of effective treatment for neglected diseases will be available in the foreseeable future. It’s an exciting, and much needed, boost for millions of the poorest people on Earth”.