iBET and Merck establish partnership to fight malaria in Africa
April 1, 2016
Merck and IBET will develop a pioneering project aiming at developing a screening platform for the discovery of new anti-malarial drugs. The project will have the duration of two years and represents an investment of 500,000 euros.
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease by parasitic protozoans belonging to the Plasmodium genus. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, fatigue, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases it can cause yellow skin, seizures, coma, or death.
The disease is most commonly transmitted by an infected female Anopheles mosquito. The mosquito bite introduces the sporozoites in the mosquito's saliva into the bloodstream. There, they migrate to the liver where they infect hepatocytes, maturing and multiplying asexually and asymptomatically for a period of 8–30 days being released as thousands of newborn parasites which, after rupture of their host cells, escape into the blood and infect red blood cells to begin the erythrocytic stage of the life cycle causing most of the clinical symptoms. Within the red blood cells, the parasites multiply further, again asexually, periodically breaking out of their host cells to invade fresh red blood cells. Several such amplification cycles occur.
The parasite is relatively protected from attack by the body's immune system because for most of its human life cycle it resides within the liver and blood cells and is relatively invisible to immune surveillance. Current treatments target the blood stage of the parasite, however symptoms of malaria can recur after varying symptom-free periods mostly resulting from the persistence of dormant hypnozoites in liver cells and the lack of effective antimalarial drugs that act at the liver stage.
Bridging the Research & Development (R&D) experience of from Merck and the iBET's technological expertise in developing advanced cell models of disease, this collaboration aims to develop a platform for screening and discovery of new anti-malarial drugs, which act on hepatic stage of infection. The project has also the collaboration of the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM), specifically from the laboratory of Dr. Miguel Prudêncio, an internationally recognized research group in the area, with particular emphasis on liver stage of infection.
According to Paula Alves, CEO of iBET,
According to Bruno Wohlschlegel, Managing Director of Merck's subsidiary in Portugal,
The disease is most commonly transmitted by an infected female Anopheles mosquito. The mosquito bite introduces the sporozoites in the mosquito's saliva into the bloodstream. There, they migrate to the liver where they infect hepatocytes, maturing and multiplying asexually and asymptomatically for a period of 8–30 days being released as thousands of newborn parasites which, after rupture of their host cells, escape into the blood and infect red blood cells to begin the erythrocytic stage of the life cycle causing most of the clinical symptoms. Within the red blood cells, the parasites multiply further, again asexually, periodically breaking out of their host cells to invade fresh red blood cells. Several such amplification cycles occur.
The parasite is relatively protected from attack by the body's immune system because for most of its human life cycle it resides within the liver and blood cells and is relatively invisible to immune surveillance. Current treatments target the blood stage of the parasite, however symptoms of malaria can recur after varying symptom-free periods mostly resulting from the persistence of dormant hypnozoites in liver cells and the lack of effective antimalarial drugs that act at the liver stage.
Bridging the Research & Development (R&D) experience of from Merck and the iBET's technological expertise in developing advanced cell models of disease, this collaboration aims to develop a platform for screening and discovery of new anti-malarial drugs, which act on hepatic stage of infection. The project has also the collaboration of the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM), specifically from the laboratory of Dr. Miguel Prudêncio, an internationally recognized research group in the area, with particular emphasis on liver stage of infection.
According to Paula Alves, CEO of iBET,
"The liver cells, or hepatocytes when grown in the laboratory quickly lose their biological characteristics. At iBET when grown as three-dimensional cell cultures in bioreactors, we are capable of keeping the original features of hepatocytes for extended periods of time (up to months), in a reproducible manner. It is this technology and this knowledge that we will be applying in this project to generate new liver cell models in which infection by Plasmodium is recapitulated as in the human liver."
According to Bruno Wohlschlegel, Managing Director of Merck's subsidiary in Portugal,
"We are delighted to start this project with IBET, a center of excellence for research and technology in Portugal. This collaboration reinforces, on the one hand, Merck's commitment to improving the health of disadvantaged populations through innovative, affordable and integrated healthcare solutions and, secondly, the commitment and trust of Merck to the capacities of research in Portugal."
"One Merck for Malaria"
Merck has today a unique position in the fight against malaria, through an integrated approach that includes not only the methods of treatment but also diagnostic and disease control, which are aligned with the global health strategies. The "One Merck for Malaria" brings together the skills of the various business areas of the company: innovative treatments by Merck Healthcare, highly sensitive diagnostic methods developed by Merck Life Science and insect repellents, developed by Merck Performance Materials."Merck has an R&D team dedicated to the research of infectious diseases such as malaria in developing countries, with particular focus on pediatric populations. The strategy and approach Merck is based on public-private partnerships and collaborations with leading global research institutions, such as the iBET", adds Bruno Wohlschlegel.