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NewsAsia 28 Sep 05 Lack of animal model an obstacle in developing anti-dengue drugs By Hasnita A Majid Singapore started to develop a drug to treat dengue two years ago. But the process is expected to be long and challenging. One major obstacle is the lack of a suitable animal model to test the development of drugs for dengue. The Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (in Singapore) says it's hoping to find or design a model that will help hasten the drug development process. Channel NewsAsia talks to dengue experts who are in Singapore for a conference on vector-borne diseases. The Aedes mosquito is a potential killer on the loose. But for the past 30 years, experts say, there have been inadequate resources to control the mosquito, leading to a rising epidemic in tropical countries. Said Professor Duane J Gubler from the Asia-Pacific Institute for Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases: "Dengue is one of the diseases that comes in an epidemic cycle. When there's dengue, there's a lot of attention, a lot of money spent on it. The epidemic goes in a cycle, so next year it will decline, so the resources are not maintained to keep it in control. Basically, they (countries) wait for the epidemic to occur and then try to respond." He added: "We live in a crisis-oriented society.....we don't do anything till there's crisis.... which is a case of too little too late, whereas if we are interested in prevention and develop good drugs and good vaccines, we will try and prevent the disease before the epidemics occur." Professor Paul Herrling, Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases' head of corporate research, said: "We know very little. We have to create a lot of the basic Science, which is one of the reasons we have this meeting in Singapore these few days, to try to find out where we are and specifically in this area." He added: "We have the problem in the sense that we don't have any good animal model that would recreate the disease in an animal so that we can study how the virus actually creates its negative impact on the body. So now we are limited to working with human tissues or in cultures." Professor Herrling said that another problem is that generally not enough research has been done on dengue so information in many areas is still lacking. The Novartis Institute for Tropical Studies says that it will take at least another three years before clinical trials on the dengue drug can be carried out. Even then, it will take at least another 4-5 years before the drug will be made available for the general population. Prof Gubler, who has 35 years of dengue research behind him, believes improvement in transportation and urbanisation has also contributed to the rise in dengue transmission, with the Aedes mosquito adapting to its environment. Over the next few days, experts at the 2nd Asian Regional Dengue Research Networking meeting will discuss ways to combat the disease. They will discuss the genetics of the Aedes mosquito and whether the insect has boosted its immunity to traditional methods of pest control. - CNA/ir links Related articles on Singapore: dengue issues, policies, discussions |
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