A new single-dose medicine for sleeping sickness, Acoziborole, has demonstrated 95% effective in eliminating the parasite. The new clinical study, already in phase 2 of 3) is the result of a Swiss initiative called DNDi, “Drugs for Neglected Diseases” in collaboration with Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Il drug it would be a major step forward from current and previous treatments, which require painful and invasive procedures.
“Sleeping sickness is a nightmare for patients in some of the most remote areas of West and Central Africa,” he says Victor Kande, of the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in a press release. “These are areas where the distance to a hospital can be measured in days, and this often leads to patient deaths. We are on the eve of a cure that can solve the problem in just one day. With a single administration of 3 pills of Acoziborole. A revolutionary change for doctors and communities."
What is sleeping sickness?
Sleeping sickness, also calledAfrican human trypanosomiasis” (HAT), is caused by a parasite transmitted by the bite of the fearsome tsetse fly. There are two different forms of this disease, depending on the subspecies of the parasite that causes it. According to the WHO, one of these subspecies, Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, is responsible for most cases, over 95%.
This parasite can wait for months or even years, without showing any outward symptoms before manifesting itself with fever, headache, joint pain, swollen lymph nodes: symptoms that are not immediately alarming.
However, as the parasite progresses it enters the central nervous system causing sleep disorders, hallucinations, confusion, seizures, tremors, and other disturbances. If not treated properly, sleeping sickness can be fatal.
And until recently (not in the 1800s, in the early 2000s) even his cure could have been lethal: a highly toxic arsenic-based drug, capable of killing 5% of patients.
The path to victory
An initial improvement (again through the work of DNDi) produced a non-toxic drug called NECT. Another substance, fexinidazole, is completely oral and is administered in a ten-day course. Drugs that still require lumbar punctures or long hospitalizations.
Now the new drug candidate, Acoziborole, can blow all this away. One administration, just one.
In tests published on Lanced (I'll link the document here) the researchers administered acozibirole to more than 200 patients from 10 hospitals in Guinea and Congo, suffering from sleeping sickness in different stages.
The results?
In 18 months of testing, the drug was able to eliminate the parasite in 198 of the 201 patients who finished the trial.
Researchers and experts hope that single-dose therapy will be much more accessible in rural communities where sleeping sickness is prevalent. The adverse events? Mild or moderate, according to researchers, with fever and fatigue being the most common symptoms.
The key factor about Acoziborole is that it can be administered not only in hospitals but also directly in rural communities, making it much more accessible than other treatments. Even if the trial results are encouraging, however, it will take at least two years before the drug is widely available.
