Ahead of World Malaria Day (25 April), EU-funded researchers have discovered that drugs originally designed to inhibit the growth of cancer cells can also kill the parasite that causes malaria. They believe this discovery could open up a new strategy for combating this deadly disease, which, according to World Health Organisation statistics, infected aroEfforts to find a treatment have so far been hampered by the parasites ability to quickly develop drug resistance. The research involved four projects funded by the EU (ANTIMAL, BIOMALPAR, MALSIG and EVIMALAR) and was led by laboratories in the UK, France and Switzerland with partners from Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden, along with many developing nations severely affected by malaria.
Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Mire Geoghegan-Quinn said: “This discovery could lead to an effective anti-malaria treatment that would save millions of lives and transform countless others. This demonstrates yet again the added value both of EU-funded research and innovation in general and of collaboration with researchers in developing countries in particular. The ultimate goal is the complete eradication of the global scourge of malaria and collaborative work across many borders is the only way of confronting such global challenges effectively.”
Cancer drugs to kill malaria parasite
Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, which is transmitted via the bites of infected mosquitoes. In the human body, the parasites reproduce in the liver, and then infect and multiply in red blood cells. Joint research led by EU-funded laboratories at the Inserm-EPFL Joint Laboratory, Lausanne, (Switzerland/France), Wellcome Trust Centre for Molecular parasitology, University of Glasgow (Scotland), and Bern University (Switzerland) showed that, in order to proliferate, the malaria parasite depends upon a signalling pathway present in the host’s liver cells and in red blood cells. They demonstrated that the parasite hijacks the kinases (enzymes) that are active in human cells, to serve its own purposes. When the research team used cancer chemotherapy drugs called kinase inhibitors to treat red blood cells infected with malaria , the parasite was stopped in its tracks.
A new strategy opens up
Until now the malaria parasite has managed to avoid control by rapidly developing drug resistance through mutations and hiding from the immune system inside liver and red blood cells in the body of the host, where it proliferates. The discovery that the parasite needs to hijack some enzymes from the cell it lives in opens up a whole new strategy for fighting the disease. Instead of targeting the parasite itself, the idea is to make the host cell environment useless to it, by blocking the kinases in the cell. This strategy deprives the parasite of a major modus operandi for development of drug resistance.
Several kinase-inhibiting chemotherapy drugs are already used clinically in cancer therapy, and many more have already passed phase-I and phase II clinical trials. Even though these drugs have toxic side-effects, they are still being used over extended periods for cancer treatment. In the case of malaria, which would require a shorter treatment period, the problem of toxicity would be less acute. Researchers are proposing therefore that these drugs should be evaluated immediately for anti-malarial properties, drastically reducing the time and cost required to put this new malaria-fighting strategy into practice.
The next steps will include mobilising public and industrial partners to verify the efficacy of kinase inhibitors in malaria patients and to adjust the dose through clinical trials, before the new treatments can be authorised and made available to malaria patients worldwide.
Background
Since 2002, the EU has invested nearly EUR 180 million in malaria research through the EU’s Framework Programmes for Research (FP6, 2002-2006, and FP7, 2007-2013).
The EU also contributes to the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) which aims to accelerate the development of new or improved drugs, vaccines and microbicides against HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Established in 2003, this successful ongoing European and African collaboration focuses on clinical trials as well as capacity building in sub-Saharan Africa. To date, 10 clinical trials on malaria costing EUR 69 million have been financed under EDCTP with EUR 35 million support from the EU.
Links
Article on the research:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21371233
http://ec.europa.eu/research/health/infectious-diseases/poverty-diseases/malaria_en.html
http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/healthtopics/malaria/Pages/index.aspx
http://ec.europa.eu/health/communicable_diseases/policy/index_en.htm
http://www.who.int/malaria/world_malaria_report_2010/worldmalariareport2010.pdf
Annex: Details on research projects involved in the discovery
Mark English: +32 229 62410
Monika Wcislo +32 229 55604
Annex Details on research projects involved in the discovery
Main contact person: Christian Doerig, Inserm-EPFL Joint Laboratory, Global Health Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne, christian.doerig@epfl.ch, Tel +41 21 693 0983
ANTIMAL – Development of new drugs for the treatment of malaria
http://www.antimal.eu/
See video at http://www.comed-project.org/index.php?id=5
Start date: 01/12/2005
Duration: 66 months
EU contribution: 17.75 million euro
Contact: Stephen Ward, Liverpool School of tropical medicine molecular and biochemical parasitology, saward@liverpool.ac.uk, +44 (0) 151 705 3286
Participants:
LIVERPOOL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE
MOLECULAR AND BIOCHEMICAL PARASITOLOGY, LSTM UNITED KINGDOM
PHILIPPS-UNIVERSITAT MARBURG GERMANY
MERCK SERONO S.A. SWITZERLAND
UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN SOUTH AFRICA
AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ZIMBABWE
CENTRE NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE ET DE FORMATION SUR LE PALUDISME BURKINA FASO
UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL UNITED KINGDOM
COUNCIL FOR SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH SOUTH AFRICA
INSTITUTE OF PRIMATE RESEARCH KENYA
KENYA MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE/WELLCOME TRUST RESEARCH PROGRAMME KENYA
CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE, INSTITUTE OF MOLECULAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGIES ITALY
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO ITALY
CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE FRANCE
UNIVERSITE LOUIS PASTEUR FRANCE
KIADIS B. V. NETHERLANDS
NATIONAL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF UKRAIINE, KPI UKRAINE
LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS UNIVERSITY MUNICH GERMANY
GHENT UNIVERSITY BELGIUM
JUSTUS-LIEBIG UNIVERSITY GIESSEN GERMANY
NEED PHARMACEUTICALS ITALY
PALUMED S A FRANCE
COSMOS LIMITED KENYA
4SC AG GERMANY
LICA PHARMACEUTICALS A/S DENMARK
AFRICAN CENTRE FOR CLINICAL TRIALS KENYA
UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI KENYA
MEDICAL RESEARCH UNIT, ALBERT SCHWEITZER HOSPITAL GABON
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI SIENA ITALY
SWISS TROPICAL INSTITUTE SWITZERLAND
CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS SPAIN
UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE UNITED KINGDOM
FOUNDATION BIOMEDICAL PRIMATE RESEARCH CENTER NETHERLANDS
UNIVERSITATSKLINIKUM HEIDELBURG GERMANY
ST GEORGES HOSPITAL MEDICAL SCHOOL UNITED KINGDOM
INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA SANTE ET DE LA RECHERCHE MEDICALE FRANCE
UNIVERSITY OF YORK UNITED KINGDOM
LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE AND TROPICAL MEDICINE UNITED KINGDOM
BIOMALPAR – Biology and pathology of the malaria parasite
www.biomalpar.org
Start date: 01/04/2004
Duration: 66 months
EU contribution: 16 million euro
Contact: Arthur SCHERF, Institut Pasteur, ascherf@pasteur.fr, Tel: + 33 1 45 68 86 16
Participants:
INSTITUT PASTEUR FRANCE
UNIVERSITY OF YAOUNDE I CAMEROON
INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR GENETIC ENGINEERING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY INDIA
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN NIGERIA
UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA SWITZERLAND
INSTITUTE OF ENDEMIC DISEASES UNIVERSITY OF KHARTOUM SUDAN
MALARIA RESEARCH AND TRAINING CENTER, DEAP, FMPOS, U. OF BAMAKO, MALI MALI
MAKERERE UNIVERSITY KAMPALA UGANDA
FOUNDATION FOR RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY HELLAS – INSTITUTE OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY & BIOTECHNOLOGY GREECE
GENOME RESEARCH LIMITED UNITED KINGDOM
IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE UNITED KINGDOM
UNIVERSIT “LA SAPIENZA” ITALY
STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY SWEDEN
KAROLINSKA LNSTITUTET SWEDEN
UNIVERSTTSTKLINIKUM HEIDELBERG GERMANY
CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE-DR13 FRANCE
CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD UNITED KINGDOM
FOUNDATION BIOMEDICAL PRIMATE RESEARCH CENTER NETHERLANDS
STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT NETHERLANDS
LEIDEN UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER, DIVISION 5 NETHERLANDS
UNIVERSITE MONTPELLIER II FRANCE
EUROPEAN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY LABORATORY GERMANY
ISTITUTO SUPERIORE DI SANIT ITALY
MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL UNITED KINGDOM
MALSIG – Signalling in life cycle stages of malaria parasites
http://www.malsig.lille.inserm.fr/
Starting date: 01/02/2009
Duration: 36 months
Contact: Christian Doerig, Inserm-EPFL Joint Laboratory, Global Health Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne, christian.doerig@epfl.ch, Tel +41 21 693 0983
Participants:
INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA SANTE ET DE LA RECHERCHE MEDICALE (INSERM) – Coordinating FRANCE
GENOME RESEARCH LIMITED UNITED KINGDOM
STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT NETHERLANDS
STICHTING BIOMEDICAL PRIMATE RESEARCH CENTER NETHERLANDS
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF IMMUNOLOGY SOCIETY INDIA
UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW UNITED KINGDOM
JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY INDIA
INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR GENETIC ENGINEERING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY ITALY
JULIUS-MAXIMILIANS UNIVERSITAET WUERZBURG GERMANY
MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL UNITED KINGDOM
INSTITUT PASTEUR FRANCE
UNIVERSITAETSKLINIKUM HEIDELBERG GERMANY
ISTITUTO SUPERIORE DI SANITA ITALY
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE INDIA
ST GEORGE’S HOSPITAL MEDICAL SCHOOL UNITED KINGDOM
BERNHARD-NOCHT-INSTITUT FUER TROPENMEDIZIN GERMANY
LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE AND TROPICAL MEDICINE UNITED KINGDOM
EVIMALAR – Towards the establishment of a permanent European virtual institute dedicated to malaria research
http://www.evimalar.org/
Starting date: 01/10/2009
Duration: 60 months
EU contribution: 12 million euro
Contact: Andy P. Waters, Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, College of Medical Veterinary & Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Andy.Waters@glasgow.ac.uk
tel: +44 (0)141 330 8720
Participants
UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW (Coordinating) UNITED KINGDOM
UNIVERSITE DE YAOUNDE I CAMEROON
UNIVERSITY OF KHARTOUM SUDAN
PHILIPPS UNIVERSITAET MARBURG GERMANY
FOUNDATION FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY HELLAS GREECE
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN NIGERIA
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LA SAPIENZA ITALY
MAKERERE UNIVERSITY UGANDA
UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA
GENOME RESEARCH LIMITED UNITED KINGDOM
STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT NETHERLANDS
STICHTING BIOMEDICAL PRIMATE RESEARCH CENTER NETHERLANDS
MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL UNITED KINGDOM
SMITTSKYDDSINSTITUTET SWEDEN
INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR GENETIC ENGINEERING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY ITALY
EUROPEAN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY LABORATORY GERMANY
INSTITUT DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT FRANCE
KBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET DENMARK
UNIVERSITE DE GENEVE SWITZERLAND
ACADEMISCH ZIEKENHUIS LEIDEN – LEIDS UNIVERSITAIR MEDISCH CENTRUM NETHERLANDS
BERNHARD-NOCHT-INSTITUT FUER TROPENMEDIZIN GERMANY
THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD UNITED KINGDOM
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TORINO ITALY
INSTITUT PASTEUR FRANCE
STOCKHOLMS UNIVERSITET SWEDEN
CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE FRANCE
INSTITUTO DE MEDICINA MOLECULAR PORTUGAL
UNIVERSITAETSKLINIKUM HEIDELBERG GERMANY
MAX PLANCK GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN E.V. GERMANY
IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE UNITED KINGDOM
ISTITUTO SUPERIORE DI SANITA ITALY
INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA SANTE ET DE LA RECHERCHE MEDICALE (INSERM) FRANCE
LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE AND TROPICAL MEDICINE UNITED KINGDOM
LIVERPOOL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE UNITED KINGDOM
UNIVERSITY OF BUEA (UOB) CAMEROON
CENTRE DE RECERCA EN SALUT DE BARCELONA (CRESIB) SPAIN
UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA (UP) SOUTH AFRICA
KAROLINSKA INSTITUTE (KI) SWEDEN
AFFILIATE INSTITUTIONS
UNIVERSITY FEDERICO II, NAPLES ITALY
UNIVERSITE MONTPELLIER II FRANCE
UNIVERSITY OF BORDEAUX FRANCE
LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGEINE AND TROPICAL MEDICINE UNITED KINGDOM
NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH UNITED KINGDOM
RADBOUD UNIVERSITY NETHERLANDS
UNIVERSITY OF PERUGIA ITALY
STRASBOURG UNIVERSITY FRANCE
STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY SWEDEN
UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW UNITED KINGDOM
UNIVERSITY OF ROME ‘LA SAPIENZA’ ITALY
MALARIA RESEARCH TRAINING CENTER MALI
KEMRI – WELLCOME TRUST KENIA
EUROPEAN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY LABORATORY GERMANY
PASTEUR FRANCE
FOUNDATION FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY-HELLAS. INSTITUTE OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY & BIOTECHNOLOGY GREECE
SWISS TROPICAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH INSTITUTE SWITZERLAND
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