Grant
The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) has been awarded $23 million by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to spearhead an international research programme against the inflammatory disease filariasis and the associated condition river blindness (onchocerciasis).
The disease is caused by a worm infection that is transmitted by mosquitoes and has become endemic in many Asian and African countries.
LSTM has established a global consortium of six academic and industrial partners, called the Anti-Wolbachia Consortium, to screen and develop new combinations of potential filariasis drugs.
The money will also fund research to target the symbiotic Wolbachia bacteria, which causes the inflammatory disease and is essential for the parasites’ survival.
The Gates award comes as evidence is emerging that the parasitic worm, which causes river blindness, may be developing resistance to Ivermectin, currently the only drug available for mass treatment.
By developing drugs that target the Wolbachia bacteria, which the worm needs to survive, the research aims to provide an entirely new method to control and treat river blindness and filariasis.
Researcher Mark Taylor said, “Drug resistance is making current [treatment] programmes less effective in areas where the disease had virtually disappeared. Ivermectin is a fantastic drug, but as with any control approach, it is dangerous to rely on a single tool. Unless we come up with a new treatment, it could mean that the major source of blindness in Africa will become untreatable.”
“Our aim is to obtain a safe and easily administered anti-symbiotic drug combination to kill the bacteria in a shorter period. This would speed up the elimination of the adult worms from an endemic area and give us another weapon against these diseases. It is a good example of how basic biomedical research can deliver new treatments which are both effective and affordable – with this grant we can now address the challenge of translating them into tools for public health.”
The funding is part of the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GPELF) one of the fastest growing public health programmes worldwide.
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