Safer sleeping sickness pill hope

Scottish scientists believe they have made a key step forward in developing a safer cure for sleeping sickness, which affects thousands of people in developing countries. Also known as human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), the infection is transmitted by the tsetse fly and is invariably fatal if left untreated.

Once the disease has entered the central nervous system the most commonly used treatment is an intravenous course of the arsenic-based drug melarsoprol – but this is excruciatingly painful and often deadly itself, killing one in 20 patients.

Now Glasgow University researchers believe they have created a safer version of the drug that can be administered orally in a pill.

The research, funded by the Medical Research Council and led by Professor Peter Kennedy, is published on the Public Library of Science Neglected Tropical Diseases website.

Prof Kennedy said: “Sleeping sickness is endemic in 36 sub-Saharan countries, exposing 60 million people to infection. Around 30,000 people at least are currently infected.”

Melarsoprol is dissolved in propylene glycol and administered intravenously. The result is a highly toxic drug that kills 5 per cent of patients receiving it and leaves many others permanently brain-damaged.

Prof Kennedy said: “By controlling the rate of release of the drug this new oral formulation, we believe we make it safer.”