Science Current Events | Science News | Brightsurf.com
 
Email a Friend Send to a friend
Printer Friendly Print SARS antiviral drug discovered: traditional antimalarial drug works against SARS coronavirus infection

SARS antiviral drug discovered: traditional antimalarial drug works against SARS coronavirus infection

September 03, 2004

Virologists from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven) in Belgium report that chloroquine, a widely used antimalarial drug, exhibits antiviral activity against the SARS coronavirus. Chloroquine is an inexpensive and safe drug available worldwide.

SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) is a respiratory illness which was first recognized in the winter of 2002 in China. By the end of June, 2003, the disease had affected over 8096 persons in 30 countries across five continents, causing 774 fatalities. Scientists discovered that SARS was caused by a virus belonging to the coronavirus family.

There is currently no effective and proven antiviral treatment for SARS. Standard antivirals (such as ribavirin) do not appear to alter the ultimate outcome of the disease. Recently, antiviral drugs commonly used to treat AIDS (nelfinavir, lopinavir/ritonavir) were shown to inhibit the SARS virus in the laboratory. However, these drugs are very expensive and have many side effects.

Today, the SARS research team led by Professor Marc Van Ranst of K.U.Leuven's Rega Institute for Medical Research report that chloroquine, a known antimalarial drug, is active against the SARS coronavirus in laboratory experiments. Chloroquine has been prescribed since the 1940s to travellers to malaria-endemic areas for the prevention and treatment of malaria. It is an inexpensive drug with an excellent safety record. A major advantage is that chloroquine is widely available, also in developing countries. When SARS re-emerges, chloroquine could be of great importance as preventive medication for people living in or travelling to SARS-affected areas, and as an antiviral treatment for SARS patients.






Katholieke Universiteit Leuven



Related Malaria Current Events and Malaria News Articles Malaria Current Events and Malaria News RSS Malaria Current Events and Malaria News RSS
Dormant cancer cells rely on cellular self-cannibalization to survive
A single tumor-suppressing gene is a key to understanding, and perhaps killing, dormant ovarian cancer cells that persist after initial treatment only to reawaken years later, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the December Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Cell phones using lens-free imaging promise to improve health monitoring
Cell phones have already revolutionized the way people around the world communicate and do business. Thanks to advances being made at UCLA, they are about to do the same thing for medicine.

Case Western Reserve professor helps control infectious diseases with models and math
Can an algebraic equation hold the secret to eradicating malaria or schistosomiasis? A Case Western Reserve University mathematics professor is utilizing the combination of algorithms and models in an effort to assist his medical colleagues in the fight against infectious diseases.

NASA scientists report on new technology to help protect US troops from infectious diseases
Representatives from NASA convened in New Orleans today to report at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Annual Meeting the results from a NASA-enhanced computerized system to assess environmental and health concerns for deployed U.S. forces.

Promising trials of malaria vaccine lead to calls for Phase 3 development
Experts are recommending that a malaria vaccine progress to Phase 3 trials following the successful trial of the RTS, S/AS01E malaria vaccine among 5-17 month old children in Korogwe, Tanzania and coastal Kenya, which is reported today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

Biomarkers in blood could aid diagnosis of crippling, often fatal forms of malaria
Canadian researchers have identified protein biomarkers that shed new light on the development of two severe and debilitating forms of malaria.

Vaccine and drug research aimed at ticks and mosquitoes to prevent disease transmission
Most successful vaccines and drugs rely on protecting humans or animals by blocking certain bacteria from growing in their systems. But, a new theory actually hopes to take stopping infectious diseases such as West Nile virus and Malaria to the next level by disabling insects from transmitting these viruses.

Stopping germs from ganging up on humans
Keeping germs from cooperating can delay the evolution of drug resistance more effectively than killing germs one by one with traditional drugs such as antibiotics, according to new research from The University of Arizona in Tucson.

Applying 'supply and demand' business principles to treat infectious diseases worldwide
Treating infectious diseases while meeting escalating costs to do so continues to pose worldwide challenges, with one of the main issues being the ability to provide an adequate supply of drugs to treat infectious diseases.

'Airport malaria' -- cause for concern in the US
In a global world, significant factors affect the spread of infectious diseases, including international trade, air travel and globalized food production. "Airport malaria" is a term coined by researchers to explain the more recent spread of malaria to areas such as the United States and Europe, which some scientists credit to warmer climate changes.
More Malaria Current Events and Malaria News Articles


The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria (Johns Hopkins Biographies of Disease)
by Randall M. Packard

Malaria sickens hundreds of millions of people -- and kills one to three million -- each year. Despite massive efforts to eradicate the disease, it remains a major public health problem in poorer tropical regions. But malaria has not always been concentrated in tropical areas. How did other regions control malaria and why does the disease still flourish in some parts of the globe?From Russia to...



Malaria Dreams: An African Adventure
by Stuart Stevens

Malaria Dreams is a tale of high adventure across Africa, recounted with the wit and humor that delighted readers of Night Train to Turkistan, Stuart Stevens' highly praised first book. "A rollicking, off-beat African odyssey".--Publishers...



The Malaria Capers : More Tales of Parasites and People, Research and Reality
by Robert S. Desowitz

Like such eminent science writers as Stephen Jay Gould and Lewis Thomas, Mr. Desowitz manages to make the basic principles of his subject immediately comprehensible to the general reader. He has also succeeded in giving us a profound appreciation of the ways in which scientific and medical knowledge advances, through hypothesis, error and experiment, through serendipity, dedication, and...



Humanity's Burden: A Global History of Malaria (Studies in Environment and History)
by James L.A. Webb Jr.

Humanity's Burden provides a panoramic overview of the history of malaria. It traces the long arc of malaria out of tropical Africa into Eurasia, its transfer to the Americas during the early years of the Columbian exchange, and its retraction from the middle latitudes into the tropics since the late nineteenth century. Adopting a broadly comparative approach to historical patterns and processes,...



Disease in the History of Modern Latin America: From Malaria to AIDS

Challenging traditional approaches to medical history, Disease in the History of Modern Latin America advances understandings of disease as a social and cultural construction in Latin America. This innovative collection provides a vivid look at the latest research in the cultural history of medicine through insightful essays about how disease—whether it be cholera or aids, leprosy or mental...



Malaria Frontline: Australian Army Research During World War II
by Tony Sweeney

Malaria, the hidden killer, plagued Australian troops in the Pacific theater of World War II so severely that the government commissioned a special research team called the Land Headquarters Medical Research Unit, a team whose story and science are documented in this medical history. Experiments were conducted on more than 800 volunteers and 300 malaria-infected soldiers who were administered the...



Malaria & the Ddt Story (Occasional Paper, 117)
by Richard Tren, Roger Bate

Malaria kills millions of people each year and hundreds of millions more suffer chronic illness. Economic development is inhibited and poverty is perpetuated. The authors argue that action against malaria is over-centralised and narrowly focused, ignoring local conditions and concerns. Health agencies in developing countries and some companies are trying to stem a resurgent tide of malaria....



First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria: How a Peace Corps Poster Boy Won My Heart and a Third World Adventure Changed My Life
by Eve Brown-Waite

In this laugh-out-loud funny memoir, a pampered city girl falls head over little black heels in love with a Peace Corps poster boy and follows him —literally–to the ends of the earth. Eve Brown always thought she would join the Peace Corps someday, although she secretly worried about life without sushi, frothy coffee drinks and air conditioning.  But with college diploma in hand, it was time...



Malaria: Poverty, Race, and Public Health in the United States
by Margaret Humphreys

In Malaria: Poverty, Race, and Public Health in the United States, Margaret Humphreys presents the first book-length account of the parasitic, insect-borne disease that has infected millions and influenced settlement patterns, economic development, and the quality of life at every level of American society, especially in the south.Humphreys approaches malaria from three perspectives: the...



The Conquest of Malaria: Italy, 1900-1962
by Frank Snowden

At the outset of the twentieth century, malaria was Italy’s major public health problem. It was the cause of low productivity, poverty, and economic backwardness, while it also stunted literacy, limited political participation, and undermined the army. In this book Frank Snowden recounts how Italy became the world center for the development of malariology as a medical discipline and launched...

© 2009 BrightSurf.com