The drug, developed by scientists in the UK and Canada, offers hope for more effective and safer treatment of coma, Nature says.
The African coma known to Poles from the book In the desert in the forest occurs mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Caused by parasitic trypanosomes, the disease is transmitted by the tsetse fly. The first symptoms are fever, headache, pain in the joints. When the parasite enters the brain, the sufferer becomes irritated, has sensory disturbances and coordination problems.
Untreated coma usually leads to death – about 60 people suffer from it annually. In the early stages, the disease is difficult to diagnose, and the medications used in coma are not perfect – in the case of arsenic compounds, every 20 patient dies due to their toxicity, while eflornithine is expensive, only partially effective, and requires a long stay in the hospital.
Scientists in the United Kingdom and Canada have developed a drug that acts on an enzyme that parasites need to survive. When administered orally, the drug is designed to be ready for clinical trials in humans within 18 months. Experts from the University of Dundee in Scotland, the University of York in England and the Structural Genomics Consortium in Toronto focused on research into the treatment of diseases neglected by large pharmaceutical companies. (PAP)