Professor Sanjeev Krishna is working with industrial partners to implement new technologies for point-of-care diagnostics. These technologies are aimed at infections such as HPV, Ebola and malaria. Improving and simplifying treatments of important diseases is another way to impact on morbidity of major pathogens such as malaria, where work over several decades has delivered advances in the use of artesunate (different routes of administration, different combination treatments and single daily dose for severe disease).
A major challenge for any treatments for infections is the emergence of drug resistance. Understanding the mechanisms that underlie clinically important drug resistance in malaria has been another focus of laboratory studies. These have not only improved diagnostics of resistance but stimulated detailed molecular and functional studies in parasites to identify and validate new drug targets for pathogens.
During the study of artemisinins for treating malaria, it became obvious that they may also be useful for cancers. The laboratory has investigated mechanisms of anticancer effects of artemisinins, after studying the mechanisms of their antimalarial action. Artemisinins are now being trialled in multi-centre, multi-national ways to improve outcomes from colorectal cancer. Soon they will be applied to other cancers where treatment options are limited, unaffordable or poorly tolerated.
Publications
- Safety and immunogenicity of rVSVΔG-ZEBOV-GP Ebola vaccine in adults and children in Lambaréné, Gabon: A phase I randomised trial (2017). PLoS Medicine Oct 6;14(10):e1002402. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002402. eCollection 2017 Oct
- Intramuscular Artesunate for Severe Malaria in African Children: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial. PLoS Med. 2016. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001938