A PNG DISCOVERY FOR HIV AIDS TREATMENT

 

Professor Topul Rali at his office at the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Papua New Guinea.

UNIVERSITY OF PNG CLOSE TO MAKING TREATMENT DRUG FOR HIV

 

By CYRIL GARE – Freelance Journalist

PORT MORESBY: The University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) School of Natural and Physical Sciences (SNPS) is close to producing tablets from hopeaphenol, a chemical compound that was extracted from a PNG plant, that can be used as treatment for People Living With HIV AIDS (PLWH).

This is good news has been heralded especially for the PLWH population in PNG as hopeaphenol comes as salvation for humanity.

Last month the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) published the hopeaphenol research findings internationally effectively citing it as a leading candidate for treatment of Covid and AIDS viruses.

Hopeaphenol has been a joint collaboration been 17 scientists from around the globe including PNG’s very own Professor of Chemistry, Topul Rali since 1996 when he first collected and sent samples of the PNG plant – anisopterathurifera to Griffith University in Australia for analysis and testing against targeted diseases in a drug discovery program.

ASM acknowledged and gave credit to these 17 who operated out of:

• The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA;
• Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada;
• Jonathan Lax Immune Disorders Treatment Center, Philadelphia Field Initiating Group for HIV-1 Trials, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA;
• Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; and
• School of Natural and Physical Sciences, University of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

Last month, UPNG Chemistry fourth year students, during a lab practical under the strict supervision of Professor Rali, extracted hopeaphenol from anisopterathurifera leaves.

“From 400 grams of leaves, we were able to extract 1.933 grams of crystals (pictured left). This is very exciting, an extraordinary find because you do not usually get this much compound from a single plant extract.

“Also, we’ve not tried the bark and wood of this tree yet to determine which parts of the tree has high hopeaphenol content and also to evaluate the total amount of the compound in an Anisopterathurifera tree,” Professor Rali said.

He added that from the 1.933 grams of crystals, 39 tablets can be made for a PLWH patient, that’s more than a month’s dosage.

He is optimistic about clinical trial on PLWH – to be orally administered alongside the current ART (anti-retroviral treatment) so that further evaluations can be obtained from there.

Already the SNPS has approved a budget of more than K300,000 for the purchase of two scientific equipment that will help produce hopeaphenol tablets at lab scale. 

The School’s request is before the UPNG Vice Chancellor, Professor Frank Griffin for approval.

In an interview Professor Rali agreed with the Prime Minister, James Marape that PNG can be the richest black nation however, without listening to scientists and putting the money down in research and scientifically driven projects such as this innovative hopeaphenol project, this dream would remain a far cry of any Government in the eve of the country’s golden jubilee anniversary.

Prof Rali said under the National Research Agenda (NRA) the Government has created the Research, Science and Technology Secretariat (RSTS) since 2014 and its time the Government ‘walk the talk’ by turning the RSTS into a CSIRO equivalent by investing around a billion kina or more every year in R&D projects that would revolutionize the economy and spin the wheel of change.

 From the PNG plant anisopterathurifera, Prof Rali displays the oil extracts on his right hand and the hopeaphenol crystals on his left.