cost action b22 on “drug development for parasitic diseases”

COST Action B22 on “Drug Development for Parasitic Diseases”

The Problem

• African sleeping sickness:– about 500.000 fatalities / yr in Africa

• Chagas’ disease:– 18 million people infected in latin America and 40.000 deaths / yr

• Leishmaniasis:– 12 million people infected and 350 million people at risk in tropical and

sub-tropical areas

• Malaria:– 500 million cases world-wide and 2-3 million fatalities / yr

• Other parasitic diseases– Amaebiasis, giardiasis, trichomoniasis, cryptosporidiosis, etc.

COSTEuropean Cooperation in the Field of Scientific

and Technical Research


The purpose of the action is to improve antiparasitic drug treatment by:

• Promoting collaboration between research laboratories

• Stimulating development and testing of new drugs

• Establishing a dialogue between scientists, public health workers and people from industry by organising scientific meetings and workshops

COST Action B22 on “Drug Development for Parasitic Diseases” (2002-2007)

The countries (21)• Austria (1)• Belgium (2)• Bulgaria (1)• Canada (1)• Czech Republic (1)• Denmark (1)• France (2)• Germany (2)• Greece (2)• Ireland (1)

• Associated members– Canada, IOCD, DNDi, Australia, SBRI,

South Africa

• Israel (2)

• Italy (2)

• Lithuania (2)

• Luxemburg (1)• Portugal (2)

• Slovakia (2)

• Spain (2)

• Sweden (2)

• Switzerland (2)

• The Netherlands (2)

• United Kindom (2)

Activities:

• Organisation of a general congress each year in one of the member countries

• Organisation of specialised workshops

• Short term missions between laboratories of member states


Working groups:

1. Genetic approaches to validate potential drug targets

2. Drug-target evaluation (in vitro and in vivo)

3. Drug screening

4. Pre-clinical development

5. Drug resistance


Publications (situation 30 November 2006):

Well over 600 publications in peer reviewed journals Joint publications:

43 collaborative papers since the start of the Action.

STSMs:

3 in 2004 3 in 2005 and 1 in 2006


Annual meetings of COST Action B22:

1st Annual Congress, 22-24 November, 2004, Antwerp, Belgium. 150 participants

2nd Annual Congress, 29 Sept - 1 Oct, 2005, Siena, Italy. 155 participants

3rd annual Congress, 1-4 October, 2006, Athens, Greece. 175 participants

4th Annual Congress, 10-13 June, 2007, Dundee, Scotland.


Website:

www.icp.be/cost/costb22/ E-mail list:

[email protected]


Results:

Three genome projects of trypanosomatids completed (Science 15 July, 2005)

Drug targets identified using RNAi techniques (several groups)

Antitrypanosome diamidines in clinical trials (Brun, Basel)

Antimalarial phospholipid (Henri Vial, Montpellier) and internal peroxide derivatives (Bernard Meunier) in clinical trials


Some highlights

Drug target validation using novel RNAi techniques:

Cyclic AMP-specific phosphodiesterases in T. brucei (T. Seebeck, Bern)

New antimalarial lead compounds:

Phospholipid analogues (Henri Vial, University of Montpellier, France in collaboration with Sanofi-Aventis)

Thomas Seebeck, Bern

• Two cAMP-specific phosphodiesterases of T. brucei are absolutely essential.

• If RNAi is induced against them either in culture or in the mouse, the cells are killed, and the infection is eliminated.

• This system mimicks quite nicely the effect of phosphodiesterase inhibitors, and certainly defines the PDEs as good targets.

• PDEs are well-studied targets in human pharmacology, and so a lot of expertise is available in the pharma industry on how to screen and develop PDE inhibitors.

• FASEB Journal (in press).

Phospholipd metabolism as a drug target in Plasmodium merozoites

Henri Vial, University of Montpellier, France

cost action b22 on “drug development for parasitic diseases”

Documents