E-DRUG: Indigenous Knowledge and Drug Discovery (4)
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Dear colleagues
There was a small article in the Public Health Assn of Asutralia
newsletter that prompted me to look for more information about
prostratin. Some of it is referred to here but there is a lot more
available at the sites given below - including more about the
ownership issues and ethics.
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Ethnobotanical research: Progress with profit-sharing agreements
between Samoa and US research institutions
Beverley Snell
January 2005
The December issue of the Australian Public Health Association
newsletter InTouch (1) carried a report on a possible 'new AIDS drug'
from botanical sources in Samoa citing Harvey Black in The Scientist.
(2)
According to the Medical Research Agencies of America, Antonio Pisig
of AIDS Research Alliance of America reported in 'The Prostratin
Story', that Samoan healer Epenesa Mauigoa told ethnobotanist Paul
Cox, when asked if she knew anything about traditional herbal
medicine, 'I know a little.' ' (3) According to Pisig's report, 'she
described boiling the bark from the mamala tree and giving the liquid
to those suffering fiva sama sama -- viral hepatitis'. Samples of
this remedy were sent to the National Cancer Institute in the USA,
and in 1992 the institute isolated a part of the plant that
demonstrated powerful effects against HIV in laboratory settings.
Prostratin, a protein kinase C activator, was isolated from the stems
of the small Samoan tree Homalanthus nutans. H. nutans plays an
important role in Samoan ethnopharmacology: the leaves are used to
treat back pain, the root is used to treat diarrhoea and the stem
wood is used to treat yellow fever. In contrast to many other phorbol
derivatives, prostratin does not appear to be a tumor promoter, and
in fact, suppressed the growth of several T-cell lines at anti-viral
concentrations. (4)
Lab studies at the AIDS Research Alliance of America have shown that
prostratin not only prevents HIV from infecting human cells, but can
also purge HIV from 'viral reservoirs' in the body - places that HIV
can hide from even the most powerful drugs approved to fight AIDS.
Scientists at AIDS Research Alliance of America hope that prostratin
has the potential to help eradicate HIV from infected individuals.
Harvey Black in The Scientist, October 1, 2004, reported that an
agreement between the University of California at Berkeley and Samoa
will result in equal share of royalties from the sales of drugs
derived from the genes of the Samoa native mamala tree. The agreement
was hailed by Irl Barefield, executive director of the AIDS Research
Alliance (ARA), which has sponsored research on plant-derived
prostratin in the United States and abroad since 2001 under a license
from the National Cancer Institute, and which holds the patent for
prostratin. Under the terms of the agreement, money from
commercialization of prostratin would go to the Samoan government,
the village where the compound was found, and each of the families of
the healers who helped discover it. ARA will use any revenues it
derives from prostratin for additional HIV/AIDS research.(5)
'I think it is another step in redressing past wrongs that have been
part and parcel of first-world dealings with third world countries
when it comes to dealing with plant medicines and native cultures,'
Barefield said. (6) 'Ethnobotanical research in Samoa helped us to
learn about this important natural resource and its potential for
treating HIV,' 'It is only right that the people of Samoa share in
any potential reward and we hope that this agreement will set a
standard on ethical dealings with medicines derived from indigenous
cultures.'
(1) Samoa to benefit from AIDS drug. In Touch December 2004, 2.
(2) Harvey Black: http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20041001/02/
(3) 2002, Medical Research Agencies of America
http://www.mraa.org/stories2.htm
(4) Gustafson KR. Cardellina JH, Mcmohon JB, Gulakowski RJ,
Ishitoya J, Szallasi Z, Lewin NE, Blumberg PM, Weislow OS, Beutler
JA, Buckheit RW, Cragg GM. Cox PA, Bader, JP, Boyd MR. A
nonpromoting phorbol from the Samoan medicinal plant Homalanthus
nutans inhibits cell killing by HIV-1 . J Med Chem 35(11) :1978-1986
(1992).
(5) Prostratin Press Release December 13, 2001. Contact: Irl S.
Barefield, Executive Director, AIDS ReSearch Alliance, 621-A North
San Vicente Boulevard., West Hollywood, CA 90069, 310.358.2423, ext.
190, info@aidsresearch.org
http://www.aidsresearch.org/prostratin.html
(6) Black, H. Agreement hailed as a model for ethnobotany projects
The Scientist October 1, 2004
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20041001/02/
--
Beverley Snell
Centre for International Health
Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research & Public Health
GPO Box 2284, Melbourne 3001 Australia
http://www.burnet.internationalhealth.edu.au
Telephone 613 9282 2115 / 9282 2275
Fax 61 3 9282 2144 or 9282 2100
Time zone: 11 hours ahead of GMT.
email <bev@burnet.edu.au>
Site: Alfred Medical Research & Education Precinct (AMREP),
corner Punt & Commercial Roads, Prahran 3181