SCOTTISH scientists have helped discover a new potential treatment for a neglected tropical disease which kills tens of thousands of people every year.
Visceral leishmaniasis is caused by a parasite, which is spread through the bite of infected sandflies.
People infected with the disease suffer fever, weight loss and anaemia, and the disease is typically fatal unless treated.
It is estimated there are 50,000 to 90,000 new cases per year with 20,000 to 40,000 deaths annually – mainly among the poorest people in the world.
Health experts said the current available drugs have limitations and are not ideal for use in settings with poor resources, and that new and improved treatments are needed.
In a collaboration between the University of Dundee, GSK and Wellcome, scientists have now discovered the compound GSK3186899/DDD853651 which they believe has potential for development as a pre-clinical candidate drug.
Professor Paul Wyatt, head of the drug discovery unit at the University of Dundee, said: “This is a significant step forward in our goal to develop new, oral and safer drugs to tackle a disease which kills tens of thousands of people every year.
“The compound still has some way to go before it can be used to treat patients, but we are excited by the great progress that we have made.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates more than 600 million people are at risk of visceral leishmaniasis.
The researchers describe the discovery of the compound in a paper published in the scientific journal Nature.
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