NEWS POST: Three Scientists Who Discovered Drugs Against Malaria And Other Parasites Are Awarded Nobel Prize For Medicine

The Nobel committee (pictured) said the work of the scientists, who are picture above) had changed the lives of the hundreds of millions of people affected by these diseases

Three scientists have won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering drugs against malaria and other parasitic diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people every year.

Nobel judges in Stockholm, Sweden, awarded the prestigious prize to Irish-born William Campbell, Satoshi Omura, of Japan, and Tu Youyou - the first-ever Chinese medicine laureate.

Professors Campbell and Ōmura found a new way of tackling infections caused by roundworm parasites. 

The worms affect a third of the world's population and cause illnesses, including River Blindness and Lymphatic Filariasis. 

Professor Tu shares the prize for her discovery of a therapy against malaria, which has been found to significantly reduce deaths from the disease.

The Nobel committee said the scientists' work had changed the lives of the hundreds of millions of people affected by these diseases. 

'The two discoveries have provided humankind with powerful new means to combat these debilitating diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people annually,' the committee said. 

'The consequences in terms of improved human health and reduced suffering are immensurable.'

River blindness is an eye and skin disease that ultimately leads to blindness. About 90 per cent of the disease occurs in Africa, according to the World Health Organization.

Lymphatic filariasis can lead to swelling of the limbs and genitals, called elephantiasis, and it is primarily a threat in Africa and Asia. 

The WHO says 120 million people are infected with the disease, with about 40 million disfigured and incapacitated.

Mr Campbell is a research fellow emeritus at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. 

Mr Omura, 80, is a professor emeritus at Kitasato University in Japan and is from the central prefecture of Yamanashi. 

Ms Tu, 84, is chief professor at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine. 

The last time a Chinese citizen won a Nobel Prize was in 2012, when Mo Yan got the literature award. But China has been yearning for a Nobel Prize in science. This was the first Nobel Prize given to a Chinese scientist for work carried out within China.

The medicine award was the first Nobel Prize to be announced with the winners of the physics, chemistry and peace prizes set to be announced later this week.  

The winners will share £633,000 prize money, with one half going to Mr Campbell and Omura, and the other to Ms Tu.

Each winner will also get a diploma and a gold medal at the annual award ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of the death of prize founder Alfred Nobel.

Last year's medicine award went to three scientists who discovered the brain's inner navigation system.

Pharmacologist Tu Youyou, pictured at an award ceremony in Beijing, in 2011, jointly won the 2015 Nobel prize for medicine or physiology for her work against parasitic diseases

Tu Youyou Wins China Its First-Ever Nobel Prize In Science

Editor’s Note: This story is excerpted from the revised edition of EXPLODING POTENTIAL. I wrote the about Tu Youyou and her remarkable work in finding a cure for treating malaria from Chinese Traditional Medicine sources.

I once promoted an anti-malaria drug which was dispensed in the injectable form and the active ingredient, artemisinin in South-East and South-South Nigeria. It was prescribed for cases of moderate to severe malaria. Years later I learned about the work of a remarkable Chinese woman, Tu Youyou; her most notable work was on artemisinin.

Before 2011, Tu Youyou had been obscure for decades, and was described as “almost completely forgotten by people” by Wen Wei Po in Hong Kong. Tu Youyou was regarded as the Professor of Three None’s - no postgraduate degree, no study or research experience overseas and not a member of any Chinese national academies, i.e. Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering. Up until 1979, there were no postgraduate degree programmes in China, and China was largely isolated from the rest of the world.

In 2011, one of medicine’s most prestigious prizes went to scientists who discovered how ‘machines’ within cells control the folding of proteins, a researcher who discovered a new treatment for malaria in ancient Chinese herbal tradition and a health centre that has made a specialty of turning scientific advances into innovative therapies. The Lasker Awards comes with a US$250,000 honorarium given each group of researchers. Created in 1945 by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, they are known as “America’s Nobels.” Many recipients have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize. One of the recipients was Tu Youyou.

What did she achieve to deserve the prize?

Tu Youyou won for discovering artemisinin (also known as Qinghaosu) and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria, which saved millions of lives.

Tu Youyou, born 30 December 1930, was a Chinese medical scientist, pharmaceutical chemist, and educator. Tu was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China on 30th December 1930. When she was a high school student, she became interested in both traditional Chinese medicine and modern western medicine.

In 1951, Tu matriculated at Peking University School of Medicine (In 1952, the Medical School became independent as Beijing Medical College, later renamed Beijing Medical University in 1985. On 3rd April 2000, Beijing Medical University was merged with Peking University and is now known as Peking University Health Science Centre). In 1955, Tu studied at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and graduated. Later Tu was trained for two and a half years in traditional Chinese medicine.

Tu worked at the Academy of Chinese Medicine (now named as China Academy of Chinese Medical Research) in Beijing after graduation. Tu was promoted to tenured researcher in 1980 (as graduate tutor), and in 2001 promoted to academic advisor for doctorate candidates. She later served as the Chief Scientist in the Academy.

Tu carried on her most important work in the 1960s and 70s during China’s Cultural Revolution, when scientists were unpopular and the government launched a secret military project to find a remedy to one of the world’s most deadly diseases. But China’s ally, North Vietnam, was at war with South Vietnam and the US. Malaria was a leading cause of death, and evolving resistance to Chloroquine, the drug of choice for treatment. Malaria was also a major cause of death in China’s Hainan province. Mao Zedong set up a secret drug discovery project, named 523 after its starting date, 23rd May 1967. Scientists worldwide had screened over 240,000 chemical compounds for a potential cure without success. Tu, a member of the Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing, was appointed to study Chinese herbs. She screened over 2,000 traditional Chinese recipes and made 380 herbal extracts, which were tested on mice.

One compound was effective, sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua), which was used for “intermittent fevers,” a hallmark of malaria. Its preparation was described in a 1,600-year old text, in a recipe titled, “Emergency Prescriptions Kept Up One’s Sleeve.” At first, it did not work, because they extracted it with boiling water, which damaged the active ingredient. Afterwards they used lower-temperature ether extraction instead, and it was completely effective in mice and monkeys. 

In 1972 they produced a drug that could be used to treat humans. Tu volunteered to be the first human subject. “As head of this research group, I had the responsibility,” she said. It was safe, so she conducted successful clinical trials with human patients. Her work was published anonymously in 1977.  Tu is now regarded as a representative figure of the first generation Chinese medical workers since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Sources: Daily Mail UK, Reuters News Agency, Wikipedia, Exploding Potential MSS