August 24, 2016.
A team of researchers from the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation in San Diego (USA) has discovered a substance capable of treating three deadly parasitic infections.
Three parasites at the origin of these diseases
According to recent work carried out by American researchers, it would seem that one and the same substance is able to effectively fight three deadly infections: Chagas disease, leishmaniasis and sleeping sickness.
The latter is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma brucei, which is spread by the bite of the tsetse fly. Chagas disease or trypanosomiasis affects 6 to 7 million people worldwide, mainly in Latin America. As for leishmaniasis, it is an infection caused by the Leishmania parasite which is transmitted by the bite of sandflies.
These three diseases are parasitic diseases causing very debilitating skin or visceral conditions.or even fatal if left untreated. However, according to researchers at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, these three diseases have one thing in common: they are all caused by parasites belonging to the kinetoplastid family.
A real hope for researchers
According to their work, published in the British journal Nature, a product, called GNF6702, would be able to eliminate the three target parasites while sparing human cells. Testing has only been done in mice so far, but these results represent real hope for researchers.
” This drug is an important piece of research, but there is still a long way to go. “, Said Dr Stephen Caddick, innovation director of the research organization Wellcome Trust which helped fund the study, at the microphone of the BBC. According to the researchers who carried out this work, these three parasites infect 20 million people and kill 50,000 each year.
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