CORRECTION: NGDI-UBC Co-Founder & Adjunct Professor Kishor Wasan on the Example of Tropically Stable Amphotericin B

This release replaces one sent out last week that had the wrong headline.

There Are Reasons Neglected Tropical Diseases Shouldn’t Stay Neglected, NGDI-UBC Co-Founder & Adjunct Professor Kishor Wasan Says

SASKATOON, SK / ACCESSWIRE / April 8, 2022 / To some, particularly in Canada and the United States, investing in research to find a scalable way to treat leishmaniasis in the tropics might seem like an odd investment of research dollars.

NGDI-UBC Co-Founder & Adjunct Professor Kishor Wasan would disagree.

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic infection spread by tropical sandfly bites. It strikes about two million people a year, most of them in three far-flung places: the border between India and Pakistan, the Horn of Africa, and northeastern Brazil.

In about 80 percent of cases, the infection results in painful skin sores. In the other 20 percent, the parasite gets into the bloodstream and causes potentially fatal organ damage. The cutaneous form of the disease imitates the visible symptoms of the early stages of leprosy.

This “milder” version of leishmaniasis may clear up on its own over the course of months or years. It, unfortunately, tends to come back, NGDI-UBC Co-Founder & Adjunct Professor Kishor Wasannotes, in a tissue-destructive form known as leishmaniasis recidivans, attacking soft tissues on the face, often on the cheek, relentlessly expanding and causing massive deformity. It can destroy the tissues of the nose and lips, then spread to the larynx, affecting speech.

The less common “kala azar” form of the disease results in darkening of the skin and a pentad of symptoms: weight loss, fever, pancytopenia, hypergammaglobulinemia, and hepatosplenomegaly.

75 to 95 percent of people with visceral leishmaniasis die within two years without treatment. The proximate cause of death is often malnutrition or a secondary infection, such as tuberculosis or sepsis.

Fortunately, there is an effective treatment: Amphotericin B. Extracted from a strain of Streptococcus bacteria found in the jungles of Venezuela in the 1950s, this potent antifungal and antiparasitic drug is the most effective treatment for the disease.

The problem has been that it (1) has had to be administered parenterally, (2) has had to have been formulated as a relatively expensive liposome, and (3) needed refrigeration, not always possible in the locations that need it most.

Funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the Consortium for Parasitic Drug Development with iCo Therapeutics Inc. (Vancouver BC, Canada; Now Satellos Biosciences Inc. as of August 2021) developed a novel formulation of amphotericin B that can be taken orally. It is less nephrotoxic than the IV-administered form of the drug, and it does not require refrigeration.

At the time of this writing, NGDI-UBC Co-Founder & Adjunct Professor Kishor Wasan and colleagues are planning to initiate phase 2 human clinical trials soon

This research has been motivated, in part, by humanitarian motives, providing new, effective, affordable treatment for a neglected tropical disease.

However, oral amphotericin is not just a potential boon to the treatment of residents of developing nations in the tropics and soldiers returning from Iraq.

Neglected tropical diseases have a way of not remaining tropical.

Most cases of visceral leishmaniasis still occur in India, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Brazil, but there have been tens of thousands of cases in the Americas, even in the ostensibly developed territories of Texas and Oklahoma.

Moreover, North Americans are not immune to the deadly, visceral “kala azar” form of the disease. Susceptibility to the visceral form of leishmaniasis has a genetic component. As global warming takes the sand fly vector farther and farther from the equator, anyone who has the genetics may be at risk for the deadlier form of the disease.

Adjunct Professor Kishor Wasan often points out that treatments for neglected tropical diseases are best considered in holistic terms. Having good housing, responsive medical care, adequate nutrition, and appropriate pharmaceuticals are important. But the value of treating neglected tropical diseases may be prepared for their inevitable spread in a warming world.

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SOURCE: Dr. Kishor Wasan

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