Anti-Wolbachia drug discovery and development: safe macrofilaricides for onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis

Taylor, Mark ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3396-9275, Hoerauf, Achim, Townson, Simon, Slatko, Barton E. and Ward, Stephen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2331-3192 (2014) 'Anti-Wolbachia drug discovery and development: safe macrofilaricides for onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis'. Parasitology, Vol 141, Issue 01, pp. 119-127.

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Abstract

Anti-Wolbachia therapy delivers safe macrofilaricidal activity with superior therapeutic outcomes compared to all standard anti-filarial treatments, with the added benefit of substantial improvements in clinical pathology. These outcomes can be achieved, in principle, with existing registered drugs, e.g. doxycycline, that are affordable, available to endemic communities and have well known, albeit population-limiting, safety profiles. The key barriers to using doxycycline as an mass drug administration (MDA) strategy for widespread community-based control are the logistics of a relatively lengthy course of treatment (4–6 weeks) and contraindications in children under eight years and pregnancy. Therefore, the primary goal of the anti-Wolbachia (A·WOL) consortium is to find drugs and regimens that reduce the period of treatment from weeks to days (7 days or less), and to find drugs which would be safe in excluded target populations (pregnancy and children). A secondary goal is to refine regimens of existing antibiotics suitable for a more restricted use, prior to the availability of a regimen that is compatible with MDA usage. For example, for use in the event of the emergence of drug-resistance, in individuals with high loiasis co-infection and at risk of severe adverse events (SAE) to ivermectin, or in post-MDA ‘endgame scenarios’, where test and treat strategies become more cost effective and deliverable.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Special Issue. Symposia of the British Society for Parasitology, volume 49. Symposium - Emerging Paradigms in Anti-Infective Drug Design, London 17-18 September 2012.
Subjects:	QV Pharmacology > QV 4 General works QX Parasitology > Helminths. Annelida > QX 203 Nematoda WA Public Health > Preventive Medicine > WA 110 Prevention and control of communicable diseases. Transmission of infectious diseases WC Communicable Diseases > Tropical and Parasitic Diseases > WC 880 Filariasis and related conditions (General) WC Communicable Diseases > Tropical and Parasitic Diseases > WC 885 Onchocerciasis
Faculty: Department:	Biological Sciences > Department of Tropical Disease Biology
Digital Object Identifer (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031182013001108
Depositing User:	Lynn Roberts-Maloney
Date Deposited:	11 Sep 2014 11:25
Last Modified:	16 Sep 2019 09:01
URI:	https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/4447

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