2015 Nobel Prize Winners in Physiology or Medicine Announced

The Nobel Committee announced on Monday the Nobel Prize winners in Physiology or Medicine. Three scientists were given distinction for their breakthrough discoveries. The Committee said the three have developed “therapies that have revolutionized the treatment of some of the most devastating parasitic diseases.”

Drug for river blindness, elephantiasis and malaria

Two of them were credited for the development of Avermectin, a new drug that has completely lowered the occurrence of lymphatic filariasis or elephantiasis and blindness. They are William Campbell and Satoshi Omura. They share half of the award. The third winner, who gets half of the award, is Youyou Tu. He is responsible for the discovery of Artemisinin, a drug that has reduced death from malaria. Their discoveries have provided humans with strong means to fight debilitating diseases that continue to affect millions annually. The Committee believes that their contribution towards improved health is immeasurable.

Parasitic diseases

Parasitic worms are the culprit to lymphatic filariasis and river blindness. These parasites afflict one-third of the world’s total population, mostly in Latin America, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. On the other hand, single-cell parasites cause the mosquito-borne disease malaria. The parasites attack the red blood cells and kill almost half a million people every year, the sad part is that most of them are children.After many years of inadequate advancement in developing sturdy therapies for these parasitic diseases, the discoveries by this year’s awardees have radically changed the scene.

The three laureates

Born in 1930, Dr. William Campbell is an emeritus research fellow at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. He is a native of Ramelton Ireland and dedicated much of his career at the Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research. He specializes in parasite biology. Dr. Satoshi Omura is a Japanese professor emeritus at Tokyo’s Kitasato University. He was born in 1935.
Dr. Youyou Tu was born in China in 1930 and since 1965, has been a scholar at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences.

Finding their way to a medical breakthrough

Dr. Omura focused his studies on Streptomyces, a group of bacteria found in soil and produces antibacterial ingredient. He separated new Streptomyces from the soil and cultured them. Out of thousands of cultures, he picked 50 of the best ones. One of them turned out to be the source of Avermectin, which is Streptomyces avermitilis.

Dr. Campbell showed that a part of the Streptomyces cultures was efficient against farm and domestic animals’ parasites. This agent was then purified and called Avermectin. It was chemically modified, forming Ivermectin, an effective compound that kills parasitic larvae found in humans.

Dr. Tu has already won an award in 2011 for his discovery of Artemisinin. Back in the 1960s, the government of China has taken actions to find a new drug for malaria, replacing chloroquine. Tu and his team collected 380 extracts out of 200 different herbs. They were able to extract an active component of Artemisia annua or sweet wormwood, a plant used by Chinese herbal practitioners many years ago to treat fever. They removed its toxic part and were able to wipe out the parasite that causes malaria. Artemisinin and its products, combined with other treatments are used as first-line treatment against malaria. When used with other therapy, Artemisinin is expected to lower mortality from the disease by over 20 percent, and over 30 percent in children.

Image credit: Jonathan Nackstrand/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images