The Drug Discovery Unit of the University of Dundee and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) are collaborating on the development of therapies for visceral leishmaniasis (kala azar).
This comes on the eve of an international meeting bringing together 200 African researchers to discuss progress on research for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).
Transmitted by the sandfly, the parasite Leishmania causes three different forms of disease, of which visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is the most severe.
Fatal if left untreated, VL puts 200 million people at risk in 70 countries.
Approximately 500,000 new cases and 51,000 deaths are reported to occur each year, although it is estimated that only 30 per cent of cases are reported.
A significant proportion of clinical cases occur in children.
The disease became well known in the UK after television presenter Ben Fogle contracted it on a trip to South America.
He was left seriously ill but recovered after hospital treatment.
The collaboration between Dundee and the DNDi is worth GBP1.8m over five years and has been established for an initial period of three years, although this may be extended to five years.
It will focus on identifying molecules capable of killing the Leishmania parasite, which are suitable for further development into safe and effective medicines for clinical trials by the DNDi's partner organisations.
The Drug Discovery Unit will look to use the current knowledge and potential medicines developed within its African sleeping sickness programme to act as starting points for the discovery of medicines for leishmaniasis.
This funding will seed the development of a dedicated leishmaniasis drug discovery group at Dundee, which will seek to leverage the expertise of researchers from Dundee by forming consortia with academic centres such as the Structural Genomics Consortium and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
The collaboration has been formed to specifically address unmet patient needs as, although the number of treatments available for VL has grown over the past decade, all of these drugs have significant drawbacks, in terms of route of administration, length of treatment (21 to 28 days), toxicity and cost, all of which limit their utilisation in disease-endemic areas.
Paul Wyatt, director of drug discovery at the Drug Discovery Unit, said: 'This collaboration helps to expand the global efforts to aid the discovery of drugs to treat the neglected diseases, which continue to blight the health and wealth of many developing countries.
'This seed funding from the DNDi will act as a catalyst to enable us to build from our current focus on African sleeping sickness into other neglected diseases such as leishmaniasis,' he added.
Shing Chang, director of research and development at the DNDi, continued: 'This partnership is an important step in the DNDi's efforts to fortify and to intensify drug research and development for neglected diseases as we work to provide better, low-cost treatments and to rekindle the hopes of the many people who suffer from these diseases in the poorest regions of the world.'
