OXFORD, Miss. — Leishmaniasis, a disease transmitted by sand flies, affects 12 million people worldwide and results in an estimated 60,000 deaths each year.
Although there are no vaccines to prevent leishmaniasis, the Department of Defense hopes a $1.1 million grant can help scientists at the University of Mississippi screen natural product extracts and compounds to identify new drug leads. The research is led by UM principal scientist Babu Tekwani at the National Center for Natural Products Research.
Leishmania donovani is the organism that causes leishmaniasis, a disease that affects more than 12 million people annually worldwide.
“The pharmaceutical companies have normally made very little investments in leishmania drug discovery efforts, largely due to apprehension about the return on their investments,” Tekwani said. “We have taken up this challenge to identify new drug leads for tropical diseases, including malaria and leishmaniasis, through a multidirectional discovery approach. This grant supports our mission to work in this neglected area of research.”
Awarded by the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, the grant allows scientists to expand current research to screen the extracts prepared from plants, microbes and marine organisms against multiple species of leishmania parasites. Tekwani’s proposal was one of 20 funded Investigator-Initiated Awards, competing in peer reviews among the 625 proposals received by CDMRP.
Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne parasitic disease caused by infection with a group of protozoan parasites. The disease is manifested in different clinical forms, ranging from debilitating cutaneous leishmaniasis with nonhealing skin lesions to deadly visceral leishmaniasis with enlargement of the liver and spleen.
Leishmaniasis occurs in more than 88 countries, more prominently in tropical and hot climate areas such as Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Brazil. With the spread of leishmaniasis in American soldiers and civilian personnel deployed to Afghanistan and the Middle East, concerns have heightened.
“Development of a safe drug to treat multiple clinical forms of the disease will have a remarkable impact on global health,” Tekwani said. “Such a new drug would also find utility for treatment of leishmania-afflicted troops and civilian personnel deployed to or returning from areas where the disease is endemic. We are pleased to help U.S. troops combat this disease.”
NCNPR, in the UM School of Pharmacy, is devoted to improving human health and agricultural productivity through the discovery, development and commercialization of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals derived from natural products.
“This award recognizes our many years of natural products discovery efforts, along with the expertise of Dr. Tekwani in understanding the biology of these parasites, and how we can discover new treatments,” center Director Larry Walker said.
For more news about the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, visit http://cdmrp.army.mil. For more information anout NCNPR, visit www.pharmacy.olemiss.edu/ncnpr.