Scientists create new models of tropical eyeworm for the development of anti-filarial drugs

Researchers from the Center for Medicines and Diagnostics at LSTM and Buea University in Cameroon have come up with new models of the worm of the tropical eye. Loa Loa for the development of new drugs against filariasis.

The research, led by Dr. Joseph Turner of the LSTM's Department of Tropical Disease Biology, in collaboration with the team of Professor Samuel Wanji of the University of Buea, Cameroon, was published in Nature Communications.

Co-infection with Loa Loa causes loiasis, which is a major obstacle to the elimination of onchocerciasis (river blindness), a major neglected tropical disease. It is expected that the new models will accelerate the development of essential alternative interventions, including new safe therapies for patients with loiasis, to accelerate the elimination of river blindness by Central Africa.

"The current strategy of eliminating river blindness utilizes the annual mbadive administration of ivermectin to communities where onchocerciasis is present," Dr. Turner explained. "People who harbor high levels of L. loa may develop serious adverse reactions to ivermectin, which can cause coma and death. As a result, many pharmaceutical and academic groups are developing new therapies that hope to target onchocerciasis while avoiding unwanted Loa loa. However, the lack of accurate laboratory models for loiasis prevented evidence-based decision-making in determining which drug candidates needed to progress. The essential advance of our study was to use specific immunodeficient mouse strains. L. loa infection models that accurately reproduce the clinical drug activity of ivermectin ".

Dr. Turner continued, "This is the result of a long and fruitful research collaboration with our colleagues at the University of Buea, which required the establishment of a state-of-the-art laboratory infrastructure in Cameroon and a This scientific research and capacity building was only possible thanks to grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Great Challenges Fund, and a Cameroonian science team is leading an epidemic in the field is endemic and with our support, we have been able to deploy the research model to examine in detail the safety of 14 Onchocerca drug candidates, including the therapeutic regimens of ourWolbachia (A-WOL) consortium. The model has been invaluable in prioritizing drug candidates for preclinical development. "

Dr. Turner and Dr. Wanji now hope that new research designs can be used in a range of other translational medicine applications for tropical diseases that affect hundreds of thousands of people in some of the most disadvantaged communities in the world. sub-Saharan Africa, including: the search for safe drug therapies specifically for loa loa, determining the mechanisms by which ivermectin induces adverse reactions in L. loa patients and validate the new filarial diagnoses.