Michigan State University (MSU) researcher Charles Mackenzie, received $2 million toward his efforts to reformulate an existing drug — flubendazole — that could stop the debilitating tropical diseases elephantiasis and river blindness in its tracks.
Mackenzie, a professor of veterinary pathology in the
College of Veterinary Medicine, has been studying filarial diseases for more than 30 years and has done extensive work in Tanzania and Ecuador and focuses on flubendazole. He is currently in Sudan.
The drug was used in the 1980s with good results against filarial worms when it was injected in animals and humans. However, the injections caused severe abscesses and lost effectiveness outside of the digestive system. Because the medicine targets the adult parasitic worms so efficiently, Mackenzie is confident that developing a safe way to deliver it would have a huge impact.
"The technology we have today is leaps and bounds ahead of what we were using in the 1980s," says Mackenzie. "If we can reformulate the drug and easily administer it, we can make meeting the
World Health Organization's goal of eradicating filarial diseases a reality."
Source: Michigan State University
Writer:
Suban Nur Cooley
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