13.06.2024
Caption: Together with the University of Liverpool, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Imperial College London and industrial partners from Astra Zeneca and Eisai Co., Ltd., Prof. Achim Hoerauf (right) and Prof. Marc Hübner (left) and team have been awarded the Horizon Prize by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Picture credits: Collage / University Hospital Bonn
A∙WOL team involving the Institute of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology receives Royal Society of Chemistry award.
The A∙WOL team has been awarded the 2024 Horizon Prize by the Royal Society of Chemistry for the discovery of potential fast-acting, highly specific anti-Wolbachia candidates for the oral treatment of human filariasis. The team is a collaboration between the University of Liverpool, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Imperial College London, University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn, as well as industry partners from Astra Zeneca and Eisai Ltd, which has been funded by the Gates Foundation for many years. Prof. Achim Hörauf and Prof. Marc Hübner from the UKB and the University of Bonn are being honored for their contribution in the fight against rare tropical diseases.
Lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis) and onchocerciasis (river blindness) lead to severe disabilities and affect more than 72 million people worldwide. These two neglected tropical diseases are caused by long-lived (10-14 years) parasitic threadworms. In Africa alone, more than 21 million people are infected with the nematode Onchocerca volvulus, the causative agent of river blindness. Around one in ten of those affected go blind. The nematodes are dependent on a special type of bacteria, Wolbachia. These can be eliminated with a long-approved drug, doxycycline. "If these bacteria die, the parasite also dies after a few months," says Prof. Achim Hoerauf, an expert in neglected tropical diseases and Director of the Institute of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology at the UKB. He is also a member of the Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) "Life & Health" at the University of Bonn.
His group introduced the therapeutic principle of doxycycline to the treatment of filariasis more than ten years ago. "However, the long treatment period of at least 4 weeks and the contraindication in children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers limits the use of doxycycline for mass treatment," says Prof. Marc Hübner, Head of the Laboratory for Translational Microbiology at the Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology at the UKB and member of the Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) "Life & Health" at the University of Bonn.
With corallopyronin A, Prof. Hoerauf's team has found another effective drug candidate to combat these worms, which will enter clinical trials in the next few years with funding from the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) and the Japanese Global Health Inovative Technology (GHIT) Fund. The natural antibiotic corallopyronin A is expected to have shorter treatment times and few side effect.
Hope for new effective mode of action
The A-WOL team's collaborative drug discovery research has led to a first synthetic drug candidate that could offer an even shorter treatment duration compared to current options. The team has also identified other promising targets for new drugs and is working with Astra Zeneca to understand how these new chemical classes can eliminate Wolbachia in the worms. "We are very pleased to receive this award for our joint research, which has yielded a potential first synthetic anti-Wolbachia (AWOL) drug candidate against filarial diseases. The principle works and requires further optimization," says Prof. Hörauf, and Prof. Hübner adds: "Such candidates have the potential to significantly accelerate the elimination of lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis and improve the quality of life of millions of people."
Prof. Gill Reid, President of the Royal Society of Chemistry, congratulates all award winners in the following video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/so6l1LLzhXk
More information is available at
Royal Society of Chemistry :
Universität Bonn :
Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation²:
https://www.immunosensation.de/news/award-for-drug-research-on-river-blindness-and-elephantiasis
