Science needs greater attention

COVER STORY

Producing HIV and malaria tablets locally is possible, says academic

WITH all needed scientific proof, verified by reputable international research collaborations, it can safely be said that Papua New Guinea can produce its own cure for HIV/Aids and malaria in tablets.
That has been said in the past and is therefore not earth-shattering news now, is it? What is news though, is the country’s attitude to its own scientist/s behind such efforts.
Some readers might have heard of Professor Topul Rali, whose name would have popped up in the news media in the recent past, mostly in relation to the same old argument: Science and scientists in PNG deserve a lot more faith from PNG. And by PNG, we mean those who hold the strings of the public purse basically.
Science and scientists need money, in whatever amount but in constant supply, to enable them to explore, discover or stumble across an idea on a potent molecule (compound) that can revolutionise anything from healthcare to food manufacturing and petrochemicals including plastics. Plus, any such advancement in scientific knowledge could not only save costs on imports but bring in foreign exchange that would repay any investment by PNG interests many times over and well into the future.
Such are the possibilities and significance of any deliberate investment in science, even at the expense of any other investment or foregoing a few recurrent expenses in other sectors.

Research breackthrough
Prof Rali’s collaborative research work on hopeaphenol, a chemical compound found in the native Anisoptera thurifera tree has yielded a remarkable breakthrough which has affirmed its efficacy in treating diseases including Covid-19 and HIV/Aids.
In 1998 he undertook the research work in collaboration with the Griffith University in Australia. He sent a small quantity of Anisoptera thurifera leaves to the university where bioactivity guided isolation against Yersinia pseudotuberculosis bacterial outer proteins led to the isolation of a chemical compound called hopeaphenol. At the height of the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020-2021, this compound showed very good antiviral activity against several Covid variants.
Prof Rali says there has been no expanded research on the tree to determine whether the bark or wood (a commercially harvestable relatively hard wood) do also contain the compound and whether it is a lot more prevalent in them than the leaves themselves.
“When Covid-19 came, hopeaphenol turned out to be effective against the virus. There is an opportunity to produce a tablet for Covid-19,” Rali says.
“The former Queensland Pharmaceutical Research Institute (QPRI) in Australia isolated hopeaphenol and sent samples to the Wistar Institute in Pennsylvania, USA, a world leader in cancer, immunology, infectious disease, and vaccine development, have now identified hopeaphenol, which targets HIV reservoirs that remain in persons living with HIV despite anti-HIV therapy.
Hopeaphenol gives hope for an alternative solution for HIV treatment.
“All HIV positive patients in the country depend on imported drugs. They do swallow 650 mg ART medication every day of their lives and these combined drugs can prove to be toxic to their livers in the long run. Hopeaphenol can inhibit or remove the virus altogether. We can manufacture hopeaphenol tablets and provide this to be taken by PNG patients. We need government assistance here.”
At his small laboratory, Rali has produced samples of crystalline hopeaphenol which he says, needs to be further purified to 100 per cent enantiomeric purity where only the negative (-) form is desired and not the positive (+) mirror image. We need technology to purify hopeaphenol then manufacture tablets.
Technology needed for such work would cost around K10 million.
The researcher has already asked the UPNG administration for a research grant to work on the concept on a small scale and produce tablets.
“PNG should make use of the Wistar Institute research discovery on hopeaphenol, as having antiviral capabilities that are efficient against HIV as asserted in a recent report published in the April (2023) issue of the journal, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
“Particularly, the compound aids in the inhibition of not just viral replication but also the reactivation of the “viral reservoir” within human immune cells that remains after anti-HIV therapy and can produce new viruses at any moment, even while patients are undergoing ART and have no viral symptoms. The supply of the chemical compound comes from this country. We need partnership with medical experts including the PNG Medical Research Institute, the PNG Medical Board and Ethics Committee to advance this.
“I have spent my life isolating molecules from plants. This is a rare find; almost 1 per cent of the leaf of Anisoptera thurifera content is hopeaphenol.”
Rali says if there is collaboration with relevant government agencies such as the Forest Research Institute, the tree can be cultivated on commercial scale to mass produce the life-saving drug.
Malaria treatment
Besides hopeaphenol, Prof Rali is also looking at producing a malarial treatment from a particular ginger plant belonging to the Ammomum species.
“A couple of years ago, some friends from Madang told me that ginger leaves were a cure for malaria. And further research at ETH, a world class University in Zurich, Switzerland verified that the ginger plant, Ammomum aculeatum produced a group of chemicals called aculeatins which were found to be active against malaria.”
Essential oils are another area as yet not fully developed. Prof Rali has been working with Central province communities to produce an oil from the Massoy tree which, sadly is being logged by foreigners currently. The oil found in its bark is used in food flavor manufacturing.
Genetically modified food
The threat posed by genetic engineering to PNG’s traditional food crops such as vanilla, coconuts and cocoa is real. A time is coming when the traditional markets which PNG has been selling its raw produce to will turn to artificial substitutes which are cheaper and more readily available, Prof Rali predicts.
The Swiss biotech company Evolva, for instance, is developing nature-based substances that mimic the natural which means that given time, producers of crops such as vanilla could find themselves out of business. The American company Calgene has already produced coconut oil from soya beans at perhaps greatly reduced cost.
“Why is the copra business dying? That can be answered by science. We need to invest in food production and converting things like sago and cocoa, and copra into products the world is not used to”.
“Coconut oil for instance can be used to produce petrol, diesel and kerosene using new innovations. The Tigaso oil, commonly used in the Kutubu area of Southern Highlands can be used to make plastics.”
These are innovations the country needs to invest serious money in if there is to any hope of realizing the much talked about dream of making PNG a rich black nation, Prof Rali says.
“What we are saying is that it is time the Government really worked with the people, the landowners who have vast unused land. The basic formula to any economic endeavour is: Land plus Labor plus Capital equals Production. The people have the land and can provide labor. All that is needed is capital in the form of financing, infrastructure and creative downstream process technology.
Prof Rali says funding in scientific research holds the key to economic prosperity in the country.
“The Science and Technology Secretariat headed by Dr Kulala Mulung operating under the Department of Higher Education, Research Science and Technology should be allocated up to K3 billion annually. This country can go leaps and bounds if we are seriously funding scientific research and development.
“This should be seen as the CSIRO-equivalent in PNG to work mainly on agriculture and forestry, fisheries and all aspects of PNG natural resource research and development. (CSIRO is Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.)
Prof Rali is among many other experts in the country who have on numerous occasions called for serious government funding towards research and development.
For Rali, working out of an office in the UPNG Science building that has obviously seen better days, that call has repeatedly fallen on deaf ears.
But that is no reason to smash the test tubes and flasks in frustration.
A nations’ aspirations for the future are at stake here.