A team led by Prof. Achim Hoerauf, University Hospital Bonn (UKB), in cooperation with the University of Bonn, the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), is developing the antibiotic corallopyronin A (CorA) as a treatment for the neglected tropical diseases river blindness and lymphatic filariasis. They have now succeeded to enter into a partnership with the Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai and to raise a large amount of funding. The team's aim is to develop a safe and sustainably effective drug against these worm diseases, which are transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. The people affected mainly live in Africa and tropical regions and urgently need active ingredients that kill the long-lived adult worms. The project is now being funded with around €5.6 million by the Japanese Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund.
Infections with worms from the filarial group, also known as filariasis, can lead to river blindness and, if left untreated, to elephantiasis - a disease in which extremities become greatly enlarged due to destruction of the lymphatic vessels. The lives of those affected are severely impaired. More than 21 million people in Africa are infected with the nematode Onchocerca volvulus, the causative agent of river blindness. Around one in ten of them go blind. In 2009, Prof. Achim Hoerauf and his team found an effective drug to combat the worms in the form of corallopyronin A. “This is a natural antibiotic that can be used successfully in patients, as it primarily targets the bacteria that live as symbionts in the worms and are responsible for their survival. As a result, the worms themselves are also destroyed,” says Hoerauf.
