Scientific Publications-2006-Neglected-Diseases

2006

Evaluation of Azasterols as Anti-Parasitics by Gros L, Lorente SO, Jimenez CJ, Yardley V, Rattray L, Wharton H, Little S, Croft SL, Ruiz-Perez LM, Gonzalez-Pacanowska D, Gilbert IH. J Med Chem. 2006 Oct 5;49(20):6094-103.
In this article, the design and synthesis of some novel azasterols is described, followed by their evaluation against Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense, T. cruzi, Leishmania donoVani, and Plasmodium falciparum, the causative agents of human African trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, and malaria, respectively. Some of the compounds showed anti parasitic activity.
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Endemic tropical diseases: comtemporary health problem due to abandoned diseases in the developing world by Ohta N. Kansenshogaku Zasshi. 2006 Sep;80(5):469-74. Review.
There are two kinds of infectious diseases in the world; diseases being paid attention and neglected diseases. The former diseases include HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, the latter group include many parasitic, fungal, bacterial and some of viral infections. "Neglected Infectious Diseases", which have been renamed as Endemic Tropical Diseases by WHO, are endemic in the developing world are not newly appeared diseases, but diseases affecting humans in these decades. However, those diseases were not recognized as serious health problems because of socio-economical and/or scientific reasons. Considering that issues of "Neglected Infectious Diseases" are urgent to be solved and also are challenging for modern medicine and medical sciences, researchers in the developed countries including Japan should make efforts to promote more active researches in this field.
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To Fully Tackle the Gang of Four, Needs-Driven R&D is Essential by Torreele E, Royce C, Don R, Sevcsik AM, Croft S. PLoS Med. 2006 Jun;3(6):e282; author reply e284.
In this correspondence, the authors address the challenges set to the global health audience to address neglected tropical diseases affecting the poor and powerless in resource-poor settings. To tackle the gang of four, adequate and field-adapted health tools must be available, and governments must prioritize needs-driven R&D for those diseases where no such tools exist.
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Global framework on essential health R&D by Chirac P and Torreele E. Lancet. 2006 May 13;367:1560-1.
One of the critical issues to be discussed at the next World Health Assembly ( Geneva , May 22-26) will be a resolution about a global framework on essential health research and development. Over the past years, the crisis in research and development in the worldwide pharmaceutical industry, and in particular the absence of research and development for new medicines targeting diseases that mainly affect people in developing countries (neglected diseases), has become a global concern.
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New initiatives against Africa’s worms by Fenwick A. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 2006 Mar;100(3):200-7. Epub 2005 Dec 15.
Since 1999, the funding available for the control of diseases of poverty (neglected diseases) has increased mainly due to leverage resulting from donations by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and loans from the World Bank. Many countries have embarked on control programmes on a national scale due to drug donation by pharmaceutical companies through vertical programmes.
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No drugs in an age of plenty: urging governments to redress the balance by Torreele E. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews. 2006 Mar;31(1):3-8.
35,000 people die every day from diseases that disproportionately affect the poor in Latin America, Africa, and Asia , and that have been neglected by the pharmaceutical industry and governments. Although scientific knowledge exists to develop new treatments, political will and the profit-driven pharmaceutical model have not sufficiently supported these efforts. Instead, it has been left to generous philanthropic efforts, but this is unsustainable. Public leadership and support is urgently needed.
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