Mission
The mission of the Department of Drug Evaluation is to support new drug discovery programs and optimise drug regimens for the treatment and protection of Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel against malaria infections.
In support of this mission the department assesses the antimalarial activity of promising candidate drugs using parasitological tools and animal models. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacological studies of antimalarial drugs are carried out to optimise dose regimes for treatment and prophylaxis against malaria infections.
Current research projects
- Drug discovery screening of synthetic and natural products for intrinsic antimalarial activity using in vitro testing against Plasmodium falciparum isolates of varying levels of drug resistance (collaboration with Department of Parasitology, Division of Experimental Therapeutics, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington DC, USA; Jacobus Pharmaceutical Company, Inc, New Jersey, USA; Human Protection & Performance Division, Defence Science & Technology Organisation, Melbourne, Victoria)
- Uptake and stage specificity of piperaquine in different P. falciparum isolates, in vitro
- Generation of new in vitro models: transfected P. falciparum parasite lines for antimalarial drug evaluation
- Molecular characterisation for resistant markers of clinical field isolates of P. falciparum
- In vivo antimalarial activity screening of natural products using rodent-Plasmodium berghei models with Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies, Griffith University, Brisbane Queensland (collaboration with Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV)
- Preclinical development of 3rd generation antifols (collaboration with Jacobus Pharmaceutical Company, Inc.) for treatment and prophylaxis against malaria infections
- Therapeutic efficacy and tolerability of dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (Artekin), artemisinin-piperaquine (Artequick) and artesunate-amodiaquine (Coarsucam) for the treatment of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in central Vietnam (collaboration with Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Hanoi, Vietnam and the Institute of Malariology, Parasitology and Entomology, Qui Nhon, Binh Dinh, Vietnam)
- Therapeutic efficacy, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of artesunate-azithromycin for the treatment of Plasmodium falciparum malaria (collaboration with Department of Infectious Disease, Military Hospital 175, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)
- Pharmacokinetics of dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (Artekin) and artesunate-azithromycin for the treatment of Plasmodium falciparum malaria (collaboration with Department of Infectious Disease, Military Hospital 108, Hanoi, Vietnam)
Collaborators
Australian
- School of Pharmacy, the University of Queensland
- Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies, Griffith University Brisbane Queensland
- Molecular Immunology, Queensland Institute of Medical Research
- Human Protection & Performance Division, Defence Science & Technology Organisation
- International Health Division, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, Darwin
International
- Division of Experimental Therapeutics, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, USA
- Department of Immunology, Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Thailand
- Jacobus Pharmaceutical Company, USA
- Department of Infectious Disease, Military Hospital 108, Hanoi, Vietnam
- Department of Infectious Disease, Military Hospital 175, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- Institute of Malariology, Parasitology and Entomology, Qui Nhon, Binh Dinh, Vietnam
- Clinical Pharmacology Laboratory, Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Thailand
- Institute of Malariology, Parasitology and Entomology, Qui Nhon, Binh Dinh, Vietnam
- Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Hanoi, Vietnam