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1、Tu Youyou & Artemisinin For the discovery of artemisinin(青蒿素), a drug therapy for malaria that has saved millions of lives across the globe, especially in the developing world. The 2011 LaskerDeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award honors a scientist who discovered artemisinin and its utility for tr
2、eating malaria. Tu Youyou (China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing) developed a therapy that has saved millions of lives across the globe, especially in the developing world. An artemisinin-based drug combination is now the standard regimen for malaria, and the World Health Organization (
3、WHO) lists artemisinin and related agents in its catalog of Essential Medicines. Each year, several hundred million people contract malaria. Tu led a team that transformed an ancient Chinese healing method into the most powerful antimalarial medicine currently available. Malaria has devastated human
4、s for millennia, and it continues to ravage civilizations across the planet. In 2008, the mosquito-borne parasites that cause the illness, Plasmodia, infected 247 million people and caused almost one million deaths. The ailment strikes children particularly hard, especially those in sub-Saharan Afri
5、ca. It affects more than 100 countriesincluding those in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, parts of Europeand travelers from everywhere. Symptoms include fever, headache, and vomiting; malaria can quickly become life-threatening by disrupting the blood supply to vital organs. Early diagnosis and
6、 treatment reduces disease incidence, prevents deaths, and cuts transmission. In the late 1950s, the WHO embarked on an ambitious project to eradicate malaria. After limited success, the disease rebounded in many places, due in part to the emergence of parasites that resisted drugs such as chloroqui
7、ne that had previously held the malady at bay. At the beginning of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the Chinese government launched a secret military project that aimed to devise a remedy for the deadly scourge. The covert operation, named Project 523 for the day it was announcedMay 23, 1967set out
8、to battle chloroquine-resistant malaria. The clandestine nature of the enterprise and the political climate created a situation in which few scientific papers concerning the project were published for many years, the earliest ones were not accessible to the international community, and many details
9、about the endeavor are still shrouded in mystery.Almost every new antimalarial drug has initially slashed incidence of the disease, and then the parasites stop succumbing to it. At that point, sickness and death rates climb again. Small pockets of resistance to artemisinin-based compounds have alrea
10、dy cropped up in Western Cambodia. To avoid resistance, patients typically take two drugs that attack the parasite in different ways, and since 2006, the WHO has discouraged use of artemisinin compounds as solo therapies. The organization now recommends several combination treatments, each of which
11、contain an artemisinin-based compound plus an unrelated chemical. In 2001, the WHO signed an agreement with Novartis, the manufacturer of one of these drug combinations, Coartem; it consists of artemether and lumefantrine, another antimalarial agent, which was originally synthesized by the Academy o
12、f Military Medical Sciences in Beijing. The company is supplying the drug at no profit to public health systems of countries where the disease is endemic. To date, Novartis has provided more than 400 million Coartem treatments. Tu pioneered a new approach to malaria treatment that has benefited hundreds of millions of people and promises to benefit many times more. By applying modern techniques and rigor to a heritage provided by 5000 years of Chinese traditional practitioners, she has delivered its riches into the 21st century. By Evelyn Strauss
