Success is contagious: Australia is at the forefront of the global fight against malaria

Tropical & Infectious Diseases

Australian research into tropical and infectious diseases is yielding medicines and biotechnology applications that could improve the lives of millions. Areas of expertise include malaria treatments, HIV prevention and Ebola vaccines.

Australian research on the Wolbachia bacterium, for example, may hold the key to affordable long-term control of diseases like malaria, dengue fever and sleeping sickness.

The inherited bacterial parasite lives in millions of insect, spider, crustacean and worm species, and can have a profound effect on these hosts – it can rapidly invade host populations, inducing developmental defects or even selectively killing males. A team from the University of Queensland is looking at the bacterium’s potential to suppress insect populations or modify their ability to transmit disease.

Australia is also at the forefront of the global race to develop a vaccine against malaria, responsible for the deaths of several million people each year. The Bill Gates-funded Malaria Vaccine Initiative supports projects by Australian research institutions that are making important progress in identifying antigens that could be key components in a vaccine.

These include the Cooperative Research Centre for Vaccine Technology (CRC-VT), which is working with industry partner GroPep in Adelaide on three potential vaccine components.

Starpharma is the world leader in pharmaceutical applications of dendrimers. Pictured is a dendrimer blocking the interaction of the HIV virus (shown in purple/gold) with a T-cell (pink)

HIV prevention

Starpharma Holdings is the world leader in pharmaceutical applications of dendrimers – tailored synthetic nanoscale structures – as potential therapeutics for diseases including HIV, cancer, respiratory diseases, and exotic viruses like Ebola, dengue fever and malaria.

The company’s most advanced pro-duct is VivaGel, a safe and effective microbicide gel to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV and other diseases. VivaGel contains the SPL7013 dendrimer, which has shown activity not only against HIV but also Chlamydia, Herpes simplex, Hep B and human papilloma virus. Clinical trials commenced in Adelaide in January 2004.

“We are particularly excited about the novel approach of preventing rather than treating HIV,” says Starpharma’s Australian CEO Dr John Raff. “It’s analogous to putting airbags into cars rather than building hospitals to treat traffic accident victims.”

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