From the University of Cape Town comes some bad news for global warming alarmists, Malaria deaths may soon be a thing of the past and their attempts to link such deaths to global warming will evaporate if this cure holds up in clinical trials. Of course it never did anyway: Another alarming climate myth bites the dust – mosquito borne malaria does NOT increase with temperature
So if this is a real cure, no more cushy grants for Michael Mann to study Malaria and AGW then, see Mann’s 1.8 million Malaria grant – ‘where do we ask for a refund’? The most amazing part is the research is only 18 months old….so I expect it will be given an even more rigorous clinical review. (h/t to WUWT reader Jason) – Anthony
African research identifies strong candidate for possible single-dose malaria cure
28 August 2012
A compound discovered by a UCT drug discovery programme has been selected by MMV for its potent activity against multiple points in parasite’s lifecycle
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| Big news: Prof Kelly Chibale (centre), here with Minister Naledi Pandor, speaks about the compound MMV390048 that he and international collaborators hope will lead to the development of a single-dose treatment for malaria. | Panel report: Dr Tim Wells, Prof Kelly Chibale, Minister Naledi Pandor, Dr Max Price and Dr Richard Gordon of the Technology Innovation Agency address the media at a press conference where they announced the development of the new compound. |
A recently discovered compound – named MMV390048 – from the aminopyridine class not only has the potential to become part of a single-dose cure for all strains of malaria, but might also be able to block transmission of the parasite from person to person, according to a research collaboration involving the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), based in Switzerland, and the Drug Discovery and Development Centre (H3-D) at UCT.
This was announced at UCT today.
On the basis of initial results it was selected by MMV for further development – making it the first compound researched on African soil to enter preclinical development in partnership with MMV.
An African solution to save lives
Naledi Pandor, the Minister of Science & Technology, said: “This is a significant victory in the battle to alleviate the burden of disease in the subcontinent. Clearly the war on this disease is not yet won, but I am excited by the role that our excellent scientists have played in this milestone in finding a potential cure for malaria and possibly preventing its transmission. Congratulations to Professor Kelly Chibale and all involved. This is evidence of the world-class science being done in South Africa and the continent, and of the power of continental and international scientific collaboration in the multidisciplinary approaches that are essential in addressing the societal challenges of our time.”
Dr Max Price, the vice-chancellor of UCT, said: “H3-D was founded at UCT in 2010 for this very purpose: to develop African expertise towards solving the health problems that beset the developing world. We trust this clinical candidate is the first of many contributions Professor Chibale and his team will be making to the advancement of international medicine.”
H3-D identified a molecule, code named MMV390048, which was selected in July 2012 by MMV’s Expert Scientific Advisory Committee for further development. The promising new compound shows potent activity against multiple points in the malaria parasite’s lifecycle. This means it not only has the potential to become part of a single-dose cure for malaria but might also be able to block transmission of the parasite from person to person.
The aminopyridine series was initially identified by Griffith University scientists in Australia as part of MMV’s extensive malaria screening campaign of around 6 million compounds. A team of scientists from H3-D, led by UCT Professor Kelly Chibale, further scrutinised and explored the antimalarial potential of the series. With parasitological, pharmacological and contract chemistry support from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Switzerland), the Centre for Drug Candidate Optimization at Monash University (Australia) and Syngene (India) respectively, the H3-D team selected the most promising compounds from the series to be optimised and retested.
In just 18 months the team had identified and developed a candidate suitable for preclinical development.
Equipping the next generation of African scientists
“We are very excited that this promising compound, researched by African scientists, has been selected by MMV for further development,” said Chibale, the founder and director of H3-D. “This is truly a proud day for African science and African scientists. Our team is hopeful that the compound will emerge from rigorous testing as an extremely effective medicine for malaria – a disease that accounts for 24% of total child deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. What is more, H3-D and MMV achieved MMV390048 as a clinical candidate in record time. In the process we have developed a unique model for successful technology platforms, and generic modern pharmaceutical industry expertise and skills, to discover drugs in potentially any disease area in Africa.”
Dr Tim Wells, MMV’s Chief Scientific Officer, said: “This is a great achievement and an excellent example of the quality of research that can be fostered in Africa. We look forward to seeing more exciting compounds emerge from Kelly’s team and are proud to be collaborating with H3-D; not only is it conducting excellent science today, but it is also providing world-class training for the next generation of African scientists.”
What is so unique and exciting about MMV390048
- It is very potent: it displayed a complete cure of animals infected with malaria parasites in a single dose given orally, and thus has the potential to cure millions of people.
- It is active against a wide panel of resistant strains of the malaria parasite.
- Developing the drug has made possible the training of more than 10 local scientists and cemented a strong relationship with an international partner.
- The clinical candidate is in line to enter clinical trials in late 2013.
View a video of Prof Kelly Chibale speaking about H3-D.
Interesting. Several of us answered TomT, with similar answers, and even the same refernces, all unbenownest to the others, as we were all in the queue.
You don’t come here much do you. The Arctic was covered a few days ago by Mr. Watts. Secondly, look at the very top of this page, just above the navigation bar, and tell me what you read.
Promising, but early. Many promising drugs are rejected in the final tests.
Jimbo, from the same article that you cited on malaria in northern regions:
“If the female gets gametocytes from infective humans, the development of Plasmodium can only continue indoors, in heated buildings.”
Thus, it is an indoor disease in northern regions. In many poor regions of the world there is no indoor heating. There are no screens or glass on the windows.
@Smokey – if you’ve got quotes from Mann saying he’s happy about malaria deaths and Arctic sea ice decline, please provide them.
“the truth is, they’re thrilled” – How does your ESP work so well through that tinfoil hat???
Declining over 33 years is normal and natural is assuming an underlying physical process. What is it? What is the evidence? What are the error bars? Surely you have something better than one photo…
If it were a natural and frequent occurrence, the NorthEast Passage would have been open to the Russians the way it is today. On a periodic cycle, of course. Any evidence of that? With error bars?
What is the problem? Climate change becomes weather change, weather change affects people. Jet stream disruption, blocking highs, yada yada yada. Ask Anthony about all that, he can tell you what happens when the jet stream jerks around. It isn’t pretty for folks who need predictable weather patterns, like farmers.
The difference in albedo between water and ice would lead you to expect that the Arctic will be absorbing more heat during the summer months than otherwise would be the case. I don’t think this very unevenly distributed influx will radiate back into space, leaving no effect. Do you?
“Steve East” quacked on August 30, 2012 at 10:34 am:
Done!
Git them shotguns ready, boys, I’s hear quacks!
dvunkannon,
Thank you for your concise explanation of the serious problem we face regarding melting ice: “yada yada yada”. I’ll have to remember that.
Jimbo says:
August 30, 2012 at 1:36 pm
TomT says:
August 30, 2012 at 11:02 am
OK, then name an “alarmist” that will view it as bad news that they can now longer link malarial deaths to global warming.
Name just one.
Al Gore, Pachauri, George Monbiot
Al Gore for example has made heavy financial investments – does he have anything to lose? Think about it.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Add in:
The entire wind power industry
The entire solar power industry
The entire biofuel industry
And, when strong evidence is published showing that the CAGW meme is wrong, do we see alarmists saying things like “whew, glad to learn I was wrong”? Or are they more than likely to grasp at the tiniest of indications that they might be right and scream with zeal “see, I was right!”?
TomT: your
Thus, it is an indoor disease in northern regions. In many poor regions of the world there is no indoor heating. There are no screens or glass on the windows.
That would not explain the 13,000,000 cases per year, or the 600,000 fatalities in the worst recorded malaria outbreak. Which was in Siberia BTW.
As the epidemic was spread over a decade, its unlikely that mosquitoes developed and lived indoors during the winters (and along with them the parasite). The mosquitos, and the parasite, would simply go dormant during the winter.
dvunkannon;
The difference in albedo between water and ice would lead you to expect that the Arctic will be absorbing more heat during the summer months than otherwise would be the case. I don’t think this very unevenly distributed influx will radiate back into space, leaving no effect. Do you?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Oh my. Do you suppose that the exposed water surface radiates to space the same amount or less than the snow and ice would? The opposite happens. The amount of energy radiated upward goes up, WAY up. Which results in net cooling. Which results in ice forming again at some point. I am constantly amazed at the ability of you and others like you to fixate on a single parameter and assume that this is the only parameter that makes any difference to the system as a whole.
TomT: I see that you do not acknowledge your error in claiming that there are only “outbreaks” in high latitudes, and malaria does not become endemic in these regions.
francois is typical of the anti-science group think that has no interest in anything other than their strange religious belief that humanity should suffer for atonement. The rest of us are cheering on the triumphs likely to come from real science. This is extremely important news that is rightly featured on WUWT. It’s good to see someone undoing the damage done by religious activists like Rachel Carson who did so much damage to people’s health with her ‘Silent Spring’. Around here, Spring is exceptionally noisy.
Mr. Watts is giving us all of the news on what is going on in the arctic, We can read it daily.
dvunkannon, I live in a malaria infested country. I almost died of it 30 years ago. Ditto my daughter yet I remain a hardened sceptic of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Runaway Global Warming speculation.
So climate is not that important then. By the way what ended malaria in Canada, Finland, England etc? Should the same techniques be used in Africa? If not why not?
TomT: Albedo actually decreases as ice melts, due to increased cloud cover.
While there are reservations in the paper (using models), measured data shows a negative feedback with a reduction in sea ice.
“”Using satellite data of the 1982–98 period in the area north of 60°N, Wang and Key (2003) found a significant negative trend in the surface albedo in the Arctic during the spring and summer. The authors claim that the expected enhancement of the surface net radiation imbalance was reduced or even cancelled out by a concurrent increase in cloud amount, as well as more frequent occurrence of liquid phase clouds.””
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~irina/work/paper_ipcc/Gorodetskaya_etal2008_ipcc.pdf
Liquid phase clouds are important, as these types have a higher albedo than ice crystal clouds.
From the conclusion:
Although based on a limited time series, these results suggest that changes in Arctic sea ice are compensated by changes in cloud cover, perhaps, as a result of enhanced evaporation from the sea surface, therefore, leaving the TOA energy budget unchanged. The implications are that any ice-albedo feedback could be dampened because of increased cloud cover and such responses should be sought in climate simulations.”
http://enso.larc.nasa.gov/ceres/pub/journals/Kato.etal.GRL.06.pdf
These authors also show a that net increase in shortwave radiation at the surface, is reduced by increasing cloud cover.
Wang, X., and J. Key (2005b), Arctic surface, cloud and radiation properties
based on the AVHRR polar pathfinder dataset: Part II. Recent trend,
J. Clim., 15, 2575– 259
Over the measured period, there was a statistically insignificant decrease in reflected SW radiation (2.0 ± 2.0 Wm2), which matched well with the calculated changes (2.2 Wm2)
Reduced ice causes more cloud, and the resluting albedo change mitigates warming in the arctic.
http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2011/2011JD015804.shtml
That was an unfortunate spelling error….”resluting” should be “resulting”….
The former might be more interesting, though.
One of the most treasured books in my bookshelf is “The Sea Around Us” by Rachel L. Carson. I also have her “The Edge of the Sea.” She writes beautifully and many “serious” novelists could take lessons from her.
I’ve never read “Silent Spring.” I can’t comment on the merits of her arguments against DDT because I don’t know what she said. Perhaps she was 100 per cent totally utterly and completely wrong, as wrong as Einstein when he said “God does not play dice with the universe.”
But I would be surprised to learn that she acted “with malice aforethought.” Many who knew her described her as an exceptionally fine person. The cheap and nasty ad homs thrown at her in this thread only make me think less of the contributor.
TomT says:
August 30, 2012 at 1:34 pm
Jimbo, from the same article that you cited on malaria in northern regions:
“If the female gets gametocytes from infective humans, the development of Plasmodium can only continue indoors, in heated buildings.”
Thus, it is an indoor disease in northern regions. In many poor regions of the world there is no indoor heating. There are no screens or glass on the windows.
———————–
TomT, during the building of the Rideau Canal, in the sweltering tropics of Ontario, Canada, in the colder 19th century, an estimated 500 workers died of malaria. I was not aware that screened windows had then been invented, nor that canal-building was an indoor pursuit.
http://www.rideau-info.com/canal/history/locks/malaria.html
francois says:
August 30, 2012 at 9:58 am
Nonsense. This website is about anything of interest. All you have to do is read the banner at the top of the page.
It’s too bad the anti-science crowd got rid of DDT years ago with the silliness published by Rachel Carson. Millions of lives would have been spared had DDT not been banned.
Same crowd is bringing us AGW.
francois says:
August 30, 2012 at 9:58 am
Mr. Watts, the question these days is what is going on in the Arctic, Please answer. Epidemics might be of interest, but you are supposed to be interested in climate.
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Huh? You don’t think this potentionally very good news would or should be welcome here?
Look up “The Great Black Swamp”. The settlement of the area was held back by malaria. Strange that malaria was a problem in northeast Ohio and northwest Indiana before Man-Made Global Warming caused it to spread. It was settled after the swamps and wetlands were drained.
Imagine what the outcry from the Environmentalist (Does that mean they channel Gaia?) if we tried to drain an area 25 miles wide and 100 miles long today!
@ur momisugly Jimbo
“So climate is not that important then. By the way what ended malaria in Canada, Finland, England etc? Should the same techniques be used in Africa? If not why not?”
The methods we used were draining swamps and large scale usage of insecticide. I know medicine and nets are being provided in Africa, but I don’t know what large scale efforts are being undertaken.
This is wonderful news. I really hope it is a cure. Seems to have been some debate in this thread about who would be against this. Especially who in the warmist crew. Well, here’s my answer. I reckon the ones who believe that there are too many people on the planet and numbers need to be reduced drastically (along with the CO2 emissions and related de-industrialisation thing). They are called “greenies.” Against their evil creed, I say, let’s feed the people, let’s cure disease. The benefits of industrialisation should be provided to all We’ve changed our environment for the better of humanity, let them change theirs likewise. And help them to, out of human compassion.