HERBAL BASED ANTI MALARIAL DRUG EFFECTIVE IN CONTROLLING ASTHMA
Asthmatic patients may
soon have a more effective way to control the condition, thanks to a new
pharmacological discovery by researchers from the National University of
Singapore (NUS).
The team, led by
Associate Professor Fred Wong from the Department of Pharmacology at the NUS
Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, together with Dr Eugene Ho Wanxing, a recent
PhD graduate from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at NUS, discovered
that artesunate, a common herbal-based anti-malarial drug, can be used to
control asthma, with better treatment outcomes than other drugs currently
available.
In their latest work,
the team revealed for the first time that artesunate is able to suppress airway
inflammation and produce an array of anti-inflammatory effects similar to those
by dexamethasone, the most potent steroid currently available, and with less
side effects. This breakthrough discovery was first published in the journal Metabolomics on
16 July 2014.
Earlier this year, the
NUS team was invited by journal Pharmacology and Therapeuticsto pen
a comprehensive review of the pharmacological effects of artesunate, and the
review article was published in the journal in April 2014.
The quest for better
asthma therapeutics
Asthma is an incurable
lung disease that inflames and narrows the airways, causing recurring periods
of wheezing, chest tightness, coughing and shortness of breath. It is a chronic
condition that affects people of all ages, but it most often starts during
childhood.
To address the global
unmet demand for better therapeutics to control allergic asthma, Dr Ho explored
the therapeutic values of artesunate, which is herbal-based, as an alternative
drug candidate. This study was part of Dr Ho's final-year project when he was
pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Life Sciences at NUS. His initial findings
demonstrated that artesunate possessed promising anti-inflammatory potential.
Dr Ho was recognised
by the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA) in 2010 for his novel discovery, and he was
awarded the SMA Graduate Fellowship for his PhD studies at NUS.
For his postgraduate
studies, Dr Ho built upon his findings to better unde
rstand the therapeutic
properties and molecular mechanisms of artesunate under the supervision of
Assoc Prof Fred Wong.
The NUS team studied
the therapeutic effects of artesunate against oxidative stress and oxidative
lung damage which are major inflammatory events that contribute to the severity
of asthma attacks. They found that artesunate could better prevent oxidative
lung damage, a major molecular inflammatory event in asthmatic lungs, than
clinically-used corticosteroid, dexamethasone.
Their collective
results revealed that artesunate can be used to better control asthma, with
improved outcomes and lesser adverse effects than currently available drugs. As
long term usage of steroids may induce many potential side effects in asthmatic
patients, the significance of this study suggests that the patients may
eventually be able to adopt artesunate as a safer and more effective
alternative to control their asthma.
The next step
Moving forward, the
team led by Assoc Prof Wong will further explore the therapeutic and
pharmacological effects of artesunate for asthma, as well as for other medical
conditions. They also intend to work with industry partners to test the effects
of artesunate on asthmatic patients.
Dr Ho is also
furthering his research as a Research Fellow at the Saw Swee Hock School of
Public Health at NUS, where he is investigating the molecular mechanisms of
artesunate, and hopes to discover more beneficial effects of artesunate and
accelerate the adoption of this drug for clinical tests.
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