Neglected Tropical Diseases
Mark Goldstein, Kira Ivarsson, Martin Kurian, Joy Dartey
How Can we Treat it?
Other Approaches
- insecticide-treated bed nets
- indoor residual spraying
- durable wall liners
- rapid malaria diagnostic tests
?
Need for Funding
Infection
- Problem isn't solely biological - political, socioeconomical
- Traveler's vaccine
- collaboration with HIV/AIDS efforts to reduce costs
What is Dengue Fever?
Multifaceted Approach
Our Vaccine
- vaccine development
- endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR)
- parasite proteins bind during the development of severe malaria
- agonist-antagonist
Spread Prevention
- protein complex called coatomer protein 1 (COPI)
- secrete enzymes that break down blood proteins
- RNAi
- synthetic dsRNA
- combine with one of previous treatments
Malaria at a Glance
Clinical Trials
- Vaccine
- standard process
- 18 - 30 years, then younger
- compare to RTS,S
- RNAi drug
- laboratory tests
- lab-bred mosquitoes
- long-term monitoring
- parasitic infection transmitted by mosquitoes
- caused by four parasites - Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium malariae, Plasmodium ovale
- affects ~200 million people resulting in about 500,000 deaths each year
- majority children
Current Vaccine Development
- no current vaccine on the market, although much research
- RTS,S/AS01 vaccine candidate
- Infection is prevented by inducing high antibody titers that block the parasite from infecting the liver
- first to advance to Phase III
- does not have long term effectiveness
- PfSPZ vaccine
- why a vaccine may not be feasible
Current Treatments
http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/resources/pdf/algorithm.pdf
What are Neglected Tropical Diseases?
Why Malaria and Dengue?
- 17 diseases are prioritized, present in 149 countries,1.4 billion people affected
- The importance of finding treatment options/preventative measures for dengue and malaria
Indirect Costs
- Dengue and malaria as diseases of development
- Indirect costs of dengue and malaria:
- Tourism, trade, foreign direct investment, business travel and immigration
- Loss in productivity from illness
- Absenteeism
- Long term effects:
- Demographic consequences –Concentration among children under the age of five
- Threat to national economies that depend on mining, agriculture (irrigation) and manufacturing.