Cape Town - UCT scientists are hopeful they are close to producing a single dose cure for malaria.
The malaria-killing compound, named MMV390048, was discovered at UCT by a team in collaboration with partners from all over the world, including Medicines for Malaria Venture.
The team have also been nominated as one of Medicines for Malaria Venture’s top research projects of last year and the winners will be announced on Friday.
According to UCT, the compound is very potent. In preclinical trials it killed the parasite in a single dose that was given to the subject orally.
It is also active against a number of resistant strains of the malaria parasite, which means it could potentially save millions of lives.
The compound was discovered in 2010 but only approved last year after receiving the go-ahead from the scientific advisory committee.
The scientists are due to embark on the human testing phase, that will take place at UCT and Groote Schuur Hospital early next year, and will begin the process of looking for volunteers towards the end of this year.
According to lead researcher Kelly Chibale, there will be three phases of human testing. According to Chibale, if all goes well there could be a final product within the next six to eight years.
“This molecule has the potential to be a part of a single dose cure. It is also a possibility that this dose could stay long in the human body and protect it,” said Chibale, who is UCT’s professor of Organic Chemistry and leads the H3-D team, which is a drug research centre based in Cape Town. The H3-D team focuses on TB and malaria based research.
The testing started with rats and mice before moving on to primates.
According to Chibale, the testing has been successful.
“We can use the data from the animal testing to project what might happen with humans,” he said.
Chibale stressed that before any testing on animals was done the group had to go through an ethical committee, saying that they were not allowed to just test anything on the animals that would cause them harm.
Chibale said they had received support from both UCT and the government.
“Research is not a luxury, it creates jobs while it is happening,” he said.
“African governments need to start understanding this.”
Chibale said that the success of this project would lead to more opportunities for research in Africa.
“This is the first major project and the most successful. We are now working on a TB project and expanding infrastructure and bringing in more expertise and experience,” he said.
There were only four full-time researchers when the project began in 2009.
There are now 22 full-time researchers and Chibale expected this number to grow further in the future. - Cape Times