Scots scientists have found what causes severe side-effects in medication used to treat fatal diseases in some Third World countries.
The research at St Andrews and Edinburgh opens the door to a potentially revolutionary way of treating illnesses like Sleeping Sickness and childhood brain cancer and it is hoped it could save millions of lives.
Existing treatments for these illnesses, known as 5-nitrofurans, can for some patients have severe side effects which often force patients to give up the medication.
Now, a joint team of scientists at St Andrews and Edinburgh has discovered the cause of these crippling side-effects, opening a path to creating a new treatment within a few years.
The research team has proposed an alternative drug combination which could be more effective with fewer side-effects.
Dr Nick Westwood, reader in Chemistry and Chemical Biology at the University of St Andrews, said: "We have listened to the message sent by patients. The class of drugs that includes Nifurtimox is effective but many people struggle to complete the course of treatment due to the serious side effects.
"Our collaborative work with Dr Elizabeth Patton at the University of Edinburgh leads to a potential solution to this problem which we believe should be trialed in the clinic as soon as possible."
Dr Liz Patton, group leader in the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, said: "This is a big step forward for understanding how 5-nitrofuran drugs work, and gives us a realistic window of opportunity to help improve available treatments.
"Our next step is to test the effects of this combination treatment in human cells and tissues."
Parasitic diseases, African Sleeping Sickness and Chagas Disease in South America, are regarded as "neglected diseases" as current treatments have changed little in 60 years and are often too expensive, hard to administer and can be highly toxic for victims. On occasion patients can be killed by the medication before the disease.
In Sub-Saharan Africa there are 70 million people at risk of Sleeping Sickness and current World Health Organisation (WHO) figures show that at least 30,000 die each year.
In South America, there are more than 100 million people at risk of Chagas disease with between one to two million people infected at any one moment.
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