SLU Receives $3.13M Grant For Research In Pediatric Diarrhea

Saint Louis University (SLU) announced that its Center for World Health and Medicine has received a $3.13 million, three-year sub-grant as part of the $15.6 million grant awarded to PATH by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The SLU grant will fund research into new treatments for pediatric diarrhea.

PATH’s portfolio of projects investigates potential anti-secretory drug targets in the gastrointestinal tract and develops leads as complements to oral rehydration therapy. PATH’s research builds on positive data from a 2011 collaboration between the Center for World Health and Medicine and PATH's Drug Development program.

The SLU Center for World Health and Medicine and PATH's Drug Development program will focus on identifying at least two drugs that show potential for clinical trials. Marvin Meyers, director of medicinal chemistry for the Center for World Health and Medicine, and a lead researcher on the project, said, “We're trying to repurpose drugs for childhood diarrhea that pharmaceutical companies had developed as therapy for hypertension that also target a similar pathway in the intestine. Researchers conducting clinical trials found these drugs are safe, but didn't work to lower the blood pressure of study participants.”

Pediatric diarrhea is the second most common cause of death in young children around the world. The disease is particularly deadly in developing countries where lack of clean, proper resources adversely affects children under age 5 who fall to the disease.

Dr. Meyers said that misunderstanding about the disease sometimes causes parents to stop rehydration treatment and inadvertently worsen their children’s illness. “We want to stop the loss of fluids from acute secretory diarrhea, which strikes quickly and leads to a life-threatening loss of water and electrolytes in young children who live in developing countries. We also are looking at other drug candidates that have an entirely different target and developing other assays that improve our ability to identify other potential drugs.”

PATH and SLU will pursue partnerships with pharmaceutical firms to acquire licensing rights and leverage expertise in drug discovery and research as part of the agreement for the sub-grant.