Purdue Researcher Granted Us$1.38 Mln To Further Study Malaria Treatment

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 20 (Bernama) -- Purdue researcher, Philip Low has been awarded US$1.38 million by Open Philanthropy for malaria drug trials in Southeast Asia and Africa. (US$1=RM4.69)

Taking a giant leap forward in the fight against drug-resistant strains of malaria, Low will further validate a drug therapy that he and his colleagues have previously shown to successfully treat the disease, according to a statement.

Low is Purdue University’s Presidential Scholar for Drug Discovery and the Ralph C. Corley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry in the College of Science.

Purdue Innovates senior vice president, Brooke Beier said this is yet another case of an organisation recognising Low’s brilliance, scientific vision and mission to help people in all corners of the world.

“The Purdue Research Foundation has been a proud partner in supporting his work, protecting and promoting his intellectual property that is changing lives and making our world a better place to live,” she said.

For years, experts have been concerned about the rise of drug-resistant malaria variants in Southeast Asia and the prospect that one or more of these strains might travel to Africa.

However, Low is working to save lives on both continents by conducting clinical trials to validate previous results and to test whether the number of days of an anti-malaria treatment can be reduced.

While studying how malaria propagates in human blood, Low and his research team discovered that the cancer drug therapy imatinib is effective in the treatment of drug-resistant malaria.

Trials in Southeast Asia showed that imatinib, when combined with the customary malaria therapy, clears all malaria parasites from 90 per cent of patients within 48 hours and 100 per cent of patients within three days.

Open Philanthropy has awarded Low US$600,000 for a larger clinical trial in Southeast Asia to validate his previous trials and US$780,000 to determine whether the usual three-day therapy can be reduced to two days or even one, in which this work will be focused in the African countries of Kenya and Tanzania where malaria is prominent.

-- BERNAMA