Prof. Achim Hoerauf and his team at the Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology of the University Hospital Bonn in cooperation with the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmaceutics at the University of Bonn and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, have succeeded in forging a partnership with the Japanese pharma company Eisai. Together, they are working to develop the antibiotic corallopyronin A (CorA) for the treatment of the neglected tropical diseases river blindness and lymphatic filariasis that affect people in tropical regions and are caused by filarial worm infection. Ascenion, as technology transfer partner of the HZI, helped shape the cooperation agreement with Eisai. The project has received funding of EUR 5.6 million from the Japanese Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund.
The goal of the project is to develop a safe and sustainably effective treatment for filarial infections, which not only cause river blindness when untreated, but can also lead to elephantiasis – a disease in which lymphatic pathways are destroyed, causing enlargement of the extremities. Over 21 million people in Africa are infected with these worms, and one in ten become blind.
Prof. Hoerauf and his team first identified corallopyronin A as an effective therapeutic candidate for combatting the worms in 2009. The antibiotic targets bacteria that live as symbionts in the worms, and that are essential for the worms’ survival. Corallopyronin A was isolated as a naturally occurring antibiotic compound by scientists at the HZI in the 1980s, and characterized as an effective antibiotic against staphylococci.
The translational research is currently in the final phase of preclinical testing, and first clinical trials are due to start in 2025/26. In cooperation with the HZI, a biotechnological process has been established with which corallopyronin A can be produced in sufficient quantities and with sufficient purity for toxicological testing. A manufacturing company has recently been contracted to produce the antibiotic on an industrial scale, including for clinical trials.
Ascenion’s partner institute HZI in partnership to develop new antibiotic
The University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) are cooperating with the Japanese pharma company Eisai to further develop an antibiotic for the treatment of tropical diseases.
