Malaria and parasites are in the spotlight today. The 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology was awarded on the one hand to William Campbell and Satoshi Omura for their work on the fight against parasitic infections and on the other hand to Youyou Tu for the discovery of a new antimalarial treatment.
Bacterial substances to destroy parasites
Satoshi Omura, a Japanese microbiologist, and William Campbell, a specialist in American parasitic biology, have isolated a line of bacteria living in the soil, the Streptomyces. Among the substances produced by these bacteria, the researchers extracted ivermectin, capable of destroying the larvae of certain parasitic worms, in particular those responsible for river blindness (also called onchocerciasis) and lymphatic filariasis. This new drug molecule has made it possible to considerably reduce the incidence of these parasitic diseases, which affect almost a third of the world’s population, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and South America. Onchocerciasis causes inflammation of the cornea which causes blindness, and lymphatic filariasis, which affects more than 100 million people worldwide, is the cause ofedema chronic conditions resulting in deformities such as elephantiasis and hydrocele of the testicles. Ivermectin, now used in all these regions, has considerably improved the health of the populations most affected.
A plant to treat malaria
Youyou Tu, a professor of traditional Chinese medicine, has developed a herbal antimalarial medicine. It is artemisinin, made fromArtemisia annua (annual wormwood), traditionally used in Chinese medicine. This substance quickly eliminates the parasites responsible for malaria and transmitted by mosquitoes. It thus constitutes a new effective means of combating this disease, while the treatments based on chloroquine and quinine used since the 1960s are losing their effectiveness due to the occurrence of resistance. Artemisinin now reduces malaria-induced mortality by more than 20% in adults and 30% in children compared to older treatments. A major advance against a disease that causes more than half a million deaths each year across the globe.
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