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.com
Volume 7
Journal of Infectious Diseases & Therapy
Infectious Diseases & Endocrinology 2019
February 27-28, 2019
February 27-28, 2019 Tokyo, Japan
Infectious Diseases, Diabetes and Endocrinology
Global Experts Meeting on
Festus M Tolo et al., J Infect Dis Ther 2019, Volume 7
DOI: 10.4172/2332-0877-C2-062
Natural products research: A potential source of innovative new drug discovery and development
Festus M Tolo
1,2
and Charles N Muthaura
1
1
Kenya Medical Research Institute, Kenya
2
University of Nairobi Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Kenya
E
nabling innovation and access to health technologies remains a key strategy in combating infectious diseases in low and
middle income countries. In such countries, infectious disease are a leading cause of death and are difficult to control if the
infectious agents evolve resistance to commonly used drugs. Modern medicine needs new kinds of antibiotics and antivirals to
treat drug-resistant infections. One source of such drugs lies in medicinal plants, an available resource still abundant in Africa.
Both herbal and traditional medicines of plant origin have provided templates that have served as scaffolds for rational drug
design. We have presented a new management therapy being developed for herpes infection in human from a medicinal plant
with activity for both acyclovir resistant and sensitive strains of Herpes Simplex Virus. Herpes is a viral infection affecting over
60% of the Sub-Saharan Africa young adult population. The herbal product, Zedupex has been evaluated for preclinical safety
and efficacy in suitable
in vitro
and
in vivo
systems of herpes infections. Cytotoxic concentrations of the product in mammalian
cell lines have indicated a wide therapeutic index (CC
50
≥58.5±4.6 μg/ml).
In vivo
, an EC
50
of ≤14.7±3.7 μg/ml for both wild
type and resistant strains of HSV has been realized in plaque and viral yield assays. Oral (250 mg/kg) and topical (10% cream)
administrations exhibits a significant delay in onset of infections, hindered progression of infection to lethal forms with
increased mean survival times and low mortality with no acute toxicity at therapeutic concentrations. Financial constrains has
slowed down the progression of clinical trial stages in human of this product but results so far obtained exemplify the potential
that still exists from medicinal plants.
Biography
Festus M Tolo is a Medicinal Phytobiologist holding a PhD in Medicinal Phytochemistry, a fellow at the African Scientific Institute and an awardee of the “The
Nelon Gold Award (NGA)” of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI). He also holds the Inter-Academy Medical Panel “Distinguished Scientist Award” of
the Chinese Medical Sciences (CACMS) and Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) in Natural Products Research. Tolo is a Chief Research Officer and the
Head of the Natural Products Research and Drug Development Programme (NAPREDA) at KEMRI.
ftolo@kemri.org