Paediatric Drug Optimization For Neglected Tropical Diseases

Priority-setting is the first step to enable a targeted approach to research and development. Developing a prioritized drug portfolio of the most needed formulations for children is essential to streamline researchers’ and supplier’s efforts and resources around specific dosage forms and formulations that address most urgent needs for children. In general, due to limited financial incentives, few new drugs are being developed for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). Several NTDs disproportionately affect children compared to adults and, as is the case like for most diseases affecting adults and children, the burden to children is compounded by lack of inclusion of paediatric populations in clinical trials and/or lack of age-appropriate dosing regimens and formulations. The PADO-NTD exercise concluded with a final meeting organized in September 2023 with representatives from the four prioritized disease areas to reach consensus on a final PADO-NTD priority list, watch list and research questions and discuss transversal issues for the way forward. The meeting report will include summaries of the background, discussions and deliberations of all PADO exercises, and final conclusions and outputs of the overall PADO for NTD exercises.

GAP-f’s three-year strategic plan (2022-2024) builds from the work undertaken to date by the network of leading partners, both individually and collectively, through GAP-f. With this strategy, GAP-f is excited to increase its footprint into a broader set of diseases to bring it closer to its vision of all children having equitable access to the medicines they need.

Medicinal Chemistry of Neglected and Tropical Diseases: Advances in the Design and Synthesis of Antimicrobial Agents consolidates and describes modern drug discovery and development approaches currently employed to identify effective chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) from a medicinal chemistry perspective. Chapters are designed to cater to the needs of medicinal chemists who work with chemotherapeutic developments for NTDs, as well as serve as a guide to budding medicinal chemists who wish to work in this area. It will introduce rational drug design approaches adopted in designing chemotherapeutics and validated targets available for the purpose.

For human health, leishmaniasis is among the most important protozoan diseases, superseded only by malaria. Globally, 10 to 12 million people are infected with 1.5 million new cases every year. The development of cheaper new drugs is urgently needed for this neglected disease that is developing resistance to current treatments. Chemotherapy remains the only treatment option for the bulk of patients. However, this is largely unaffordable for most. In the past three years numerous advances in drug discovery have been made for treating this disease by exploiting diverging metabolic pathways between the Leishmania enzymes and their hosts, using nanotechnology to target the immune cell phagolysosomes where Leishmania resides. Drug Discovery for Leishmaniasis aims to provide a perspective of the current treatments and their challenges, blended with the emerging strategies and methodologies that will drive new target appraisals and drug developments, as well as addressing the molecular basis of resistance in Leishmania. Recent studies have shown that leishmaniasis affects some of the poorest people in the world, with 95% of fatal cases occurring in only 6 countries. With the WHO goal of eliminating this public health problem in the South-east Asia Region by 2020, this book will be important for anyone who is interested in neglected tropical diseases.

This second edition of Bench aids for the diagnosis of intestinal parasites is intended both as a practical tool for the diagnosis of intestinal parasitic infections for laboratory and field workers and as a teaching aid for students and trainees. The plates are arranged on two sides: the recto with microphotographs for the identification of eggs larvae trophozoites cysts and oocysts occurring in faeces and the verso dedicated to the different copromicroscopical methods (procedures) and main staining techniques used in parasitology. Special attention has been devoted to all graphical and pictorial contents. The decision to include the outline of an Ascaris lumbricoides egg in its relative size next to each parasitic structure fulfils the intention of visualizing the actual dimensions that the eye needs to be looking for when examining the specimens with a microscope. For each image the size of the parasite and a short description are provided to assist in the microscopical identification. Two summary plates one for helminths and the other for protozoa are also included to provide a visual overview of the different presentations of parasitic elements. The bench aids have been produced in a weatherproof plastic-sealed format that is robust and easy to use at the bench. They are recommended for use by all health workers engaged in the routine diagnosis of intestinal parasitic infections.

The successes that have been achieved in treating childhood cancers stand as beacons against the less dramatic improvements for adults with cancer. Progress began to accelerate in the 1960s and 1970s, as treatment regimens were built up, primarily by building combinations of chemotherapeutic drugs. However the near absence of research in pediatric cancer drug discovery threatens to halt the progress in childhood cancer treatment achieved during the past four decades. Making Better Drugs for Children with Cancer identifies the major issues to be addressed in developing new agents for childhood cancers, the gaps in research and development, and the steps that have been suggested to move the process forward. This report also makes a new proposal to capitalize on today's science to bring new treatments to children's cancers.