Research Network Natural Products against Neglected Diseases
(ResNet NPND)
About one billion people world-wide, mainly in tropical regions, suffer from at least one of 17 life-threatening diseases currently classified by WHO as “Neglected Diseases”. Among these, infections caused by protozoan parasites such as Chagas Disease, Leishmaniasis and African Sleeping Sickness are largely unknown to the public in high-income countries. There is an urgent need to develop new safe and affordable drugs against these diseases.
The Research Network Natural Products against Neglected Diseases (ResNet NPND) has been established in April 2011 as a multilateral and international research initiative entirely dedicated to fight this global health threat with compounds derived from natural, renewable and sustainable sources.
The network comprises natural products- and medicinal chemists, parasitologists and specialists in antiprotozoal drug screening as well as biochemists and molecular biologists, who dedicate their coordinated and synergistic efforts to the search for new active natural products against Chagas-disease, Sleeping Sickness, Leishmaniasis and further protozoan infections.
Seminal Workshop (April 26-28, 2011):
"Research Initiative on Natural Products against Neglected Diseases"
************* News *************
IPBP publication on natural products against neglected diseases receives „Molecules Best Paper Award 2013“ [March 2013]
The Open Access Journal „Molecules“ has awarded the publication
Thomas J. Schmidt, Amal M. M. Nour, Sami A. Khalid, Marcel Kaiser and Reto Brun
Quantitative Structure—Antiprotozoal Activity Relationships of Sesquiterpene Lactones
Molecules 2009, 14(6), 2062-2076; doi:10.3390/molecules14062062
the 1st prize of “Molecules-Best Paper Award 2013”.
The authors will dedicate the prize to further research on neglected diseases within the ResNetNPND.
Canadian software manufacturer CCG supports ResNetNPND by granting extra research licenses for modelling software MOE
[Nov. 2012]
The Chemical Computing Group (Montreal, Canada), manufacturer of the molecular modelling and drug design software suite "Molecular Operations Environment" (MOE), has granted three additional licenses to the group of T. J. Schmidt for one year, in order to support in silico work within the ResNetNPND.
This extra computational resource is being used in a massive in silico screening/docking campaign with natural product databases vs. a wide palette of Trypanosomal, Leishmanial and Plasmodial target proteins.
This non-profit engagement of CCG to advance research against Neglected Diseases is highly appreciated.
Prof. Fernando B. Da Costa, first holder of the WWU Brazil Chair Professorship, starts work at IPBP
[Sept. 05, 2012].
Prof. Fernando Batista Da Costa from the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, as the first Brazilian researcher, has recently been selected for the Brazil chair professorship at WWU, funded by the Brazilian CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior).
Professor Da Costa (link to his CV) begins his six-month stay at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology and Phytochemistry (IPBP), WWU Muenster, on Sept. 05, 2012.
Fernando Da Costa, former director of the Natural Products Division of the Brazilian Chemical Society, is one of Brazil's top natural products chemists and a member of the Research Network Natural Products against Neglected Diseases (ResNetNPND). In the course of his guest professorship at WWU he will work together with the group of Prof. Thomas Schmidt at IPBP, with a main focus on the in silico evaluation of the antiinfective potential of natural products against tropical neglected diseases.
Chamber of Pharmacists/Pharmacists' Foundation (Apothekerkammer/Apothekerstiftung) Westfalen-Lippe supports research on Natural Products against Neglected Tropical Diseases
[August 2012] The Chamber of Pharmacists, by means of the Pharmasists' Foundation Westfalen-Lippe (Apothekerkammer Westfalen-Lippe/Apothekerstiftung Westfalen-Lippe) has granted financial support for a scientific project to be carried out within the ResNetNPND. This project, carried out primarily by the groups of T. J. Schmidt (Münster) and R. Brun (Basle), is directed towards the investigation of antiprotozoal potential of phytomedicinal preparations which are already legally approved and marketed. It is expected that this screening effort may yield new potential ("off-label") applications of already existing and registered/approved herbal preparations as well as hitherto unknown new lead compounds of natural origin against the neglected tropical diseases.
The grant duration is three years. This important engagement of the Westfalian-Lippian Pharmacists in the fight against these grave diseases, hardly known in western high-income countries, is most gratefully acknowledged.
Apothekerkammer/Apothekerstiftung Westfalen-Lippe unterstützt Forschung zu Naturstoffen gegen vernachlässigte Tropenkrankheiten
[August 2012] Die Apothekerkammer bzw. Apothekerstiftung Westfalen-Lippe fördert ein wissenschaftliches Projekt innerhalb des ResNetNPND. Das Projekt, schwerpunktmäßig durchgeführt in den Arbeitsgruppen von T. J. Schmidt (Münster) und R. Brun (Basel), befasst sich mit der Testung von bereits zugelassenenen und markteingeführten Phytopharmaka gegen die Erreger vernachlässigter Tropenkrankheiten. Hieraus können neue potentielle ("off-label") Anwendungen für solche Präparate sowie Hinweise auf bisher unbekannte Leitstrukturen natürlichen Ursprungs gegen diese Erreger resultieren.
Der Förderzeitraum beträgt drei Jahre. Der Westfälisch-Lippischen Apothekerschaft sei für dieses wichtige Engagement gegen hierzulande fast unbekannte, jedoch weite Teile der Welt betreffende schwerwiegende Erkrankungen herzlich gedankt.
[Mar 2012] Comprehensive Review "The potential of secondary metabolites from plants as drugs or leads against protozoan neglected diseases" now published in Current Medicinal Chemistry .
This review consists of two parts summarizing the current state of knowledge in this field as published in approximately 800 references and covering the antiprotozoal potential of about 900 secondary metabolites from plants. This work was authored by 22 co-authors, including many of the members of ResNetNPND and several further specialists in this field. Both publications are part of a special issue of Current Medicinal Chemistry titled "Coming Back To Nature: Plants As A Vital Source Of Pharmaceutically Important Metabolites" which has now been published, see http://www.benthamscience.com/contents-JCode-CMC-Vol-00000019-Iss-00000014.htm.
First official ResNetNPND doctorate student funded by DAAD/CAPES
Recently, Mauro Nogueira da Silva, Master of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Universidade de Sao Paulo at Ribeirao Preto, was awarded a DAAD/CAPES fellowship in order to start his doctorate work at the University of Münster under supervision of T. J. Schmidt. Mr. Nogueira will pursue a research project within the cooperation between his supervisor and F. B. da Costa (Ribeirao Preto) within ResNetNPND, starting in April 2012 after a six month German course.
