Hunting the killer of millions has taken more than two decades, but Tulane University tropical medicine researcher Donald Krogstad seems to be gaining on his prey. In 1982, Krogstad began considering the problem of drug-resistant malaria.
Malaria kills from 2 million to 3 million people annually, most of whom are African children under the age of 5. Recently, Immtech International Inc. announced it will license the antimalarial medicine that Krogstad developed at Tulane. Krogstad chairs the Department of Tropical Medicine at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and is director of the Center for Infectious Diseases at Tulane.
"There is a truly realistic possibility that this drug will work," Krogstad says, recalling the surprising moment in 1994 when compounds he had developed killed drug-resistant malarial parasites in the test tube. From there, he and his team moved forward, refining the compound, currently known as AQ13, and beginning the process of testing it according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations. After success in the test tube, Krogstad saw success in two monkey models of malaria. Phase I trials, conducted in New Orleans with the participation of hundreds of New Orleanians, have shown that AQ13 is safe for human use.
The strength of these results has attracted support from the Medicines for Malaria Venture, an international foundation that funds and promotes research on antimalarials with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and from Immtech.
"The clinical trials here at the Tulane-LSU-Charity Hospital General Clinical Research Center in New Orleans have shown that the investigational compound is as safe in humans as chloroquine, which is a long-established antimalarial known to be extremely safe for humans. However, chloroquine has fallen into disuse because it doesn't work against the drug-resistant parasites," Krogstad says.
The next step is to test the compound in humans who are already infected with malaria. Krogstad and a team from the University of Bamako in Mali will begin testing in Malians in the coming months. Drug resistance is such a chronic problem that AQ13 will likely have to be used in combination with another antimalarial, Krogstad says.
"If this drug is successful, not only will we have another weapon against malaria, but it has the potential to be very affordable at three cents per dose. The countries most affected by malaria are some of the poorest in the world, so clearly this could be enormously helpful to them," Krogstad says.
According to Immtech International Inc., the potential Asian, African and Latin American market for a new antimalarial drug is approximately 2.6 billion people, with an additional 125 million travelers who need protection every year.
