16 August 2007

£1.5 million to fight devastating parasitic diseases

The basic workings of the parasites which cause some of the developing world’s most devastating diseases are the subject of a major new research project at the University of Dundee.

Researchers working in the College of Life Sciences at Dundee have been given a grant of £1.5 million from the Wellcome Trust towards research into the parasites which cause diseases such as African Sleeping Sickness and Chagas’ Disease, which kill tens of thousands people every year and are a major factor in the medical, social and economic woes which bedevil so many developing countries.

The research team, led by Professor Bill Hunter, plan to unearth the vital clues which could lead to the development of new therapies for these diseases.

"We need to develop new knowledge about the parasites which cause diseases such as African Sleeping Sickness, diseases for which the current treatments are inadequate and improve our understanding of parasite biology - how they work, how they stay alive, what makes them tick essentially,” said Professor Hunter. “That leads to the second stage of the research, which is how do we stop them working and how we can develop the chemical tools which will do just that."

"We are now set to progress some difficult research problems that will advance fundamental knowledge of pathogen biology and ultimately support efforts to improve the treatments of important microbial infections."

The team will also examine enzymes relevant to both malaria and tuberculosis to see if these can be exploited as drug targets.

The £1.5 million grant from the Wellcome Trust provides funding for five new staff and will also provide essential new equipment.

"This five-year award is a reflection of our previous successes in structural biology and molecular parasitology and a tremendous endorsement from The Wellcome Trust," said Professor Hunter.

"Credit goes to my colleagues here in Dundee who contribute so much to different aspects of the research and also at the University of St Andrews with whom we have a close alliance as part of the Scottish Structural Proteomics Facility."

Professor Hunter’s team utilise a technique called single crystal X-ray diffraction, through which they can build a detailed picture of the chemical structure of the enzymes contained within the parasites.

The team shine an X-ray beam on to crystals built from the enzymes and the atoms within the crystal scatter or `diffract’ the X-rays. How the X-rays are scattered allows researchers to see where the atoms are placed and from this they can build a picture of the overall structure.

"We build a 3-D picture of the key enzymes and generate an accurate chemical structure of the molecules we are interested in.," said Professor Hunter.

The enzymes being investigated make important small molecules, which protect the parasites from damage that results from normal metabolism, from the human immune system, and which build the protective fabric of the parasite cell surface.

Dr Pat Goodwin, Head of Pathogens, Immunology and Population Studies at the Wellcome Trust, said, "The Wellcome Trust is delighted to support this important research. Current treatments for African Sleeping Sickness and Chagas' Disease are not very effective and we hope that the work of the Dundee team will lead to the development of improved drugs to combat these devastating diseases."

The College of Life Sciences at Dundee is a major centre for research into tropical diseases, particularly African Sleeping Sickness, Chagas’ Disease and leishmaniasis. The College is home to the Drug Discovery Unit, a £13 million initiative to tackle some of the world’s most neglected diseases, which was opened in January 2006 by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP.

Mr Brown described the facility at Dundee as "a unit which gives hope to 30 million people in areas such as sub-Saharan Africa and India, and hope therefore for thousands of people who die unnecessarily and avoidably every year."

NOTES TO EDITORS

The University of Dundee team is renowned for their academic contributions to tropical disease research. Together, they integrate many disciplines directed towards the discovery of new therapies for tropical diseases. 76 scientists - spanning all the disciplines needed to go from biology to drug design, synthesis and testing - work in the Drug Discovery Unit.

There are over 140,000 reported deaths from African sleeping sickness, Chagas’ Disease and leishmaniasis each year, although it is generally agreed this figure is an underestimate because of the lack of medical reporting in many under-developed countries.

The parasites causing these diseases are protozoan microbes spread by blood-sucking insects, and afflict millions of people. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that;

• there are around 400,000 cases of tsetse fly-transmitted African sleeping sickness each year.
• more than 16 million people have Chagas' disease (endemic in South and Central America)
• more than 12 million have leishmaniasis (a range of diseases found throughout the tropics and sub-tropics).

At present no vaccines exist to prevent these debilitating and often lethal infections.

The drug discovery programme at the University of Dundee matches the goals of both the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (www.dndi.org) and the UNICEF-UNDP-World Bank-WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases.

The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending around £500 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and wellbeing. http://www.wellcome.ac.uk

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