Researchers in Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria, are on the verge of what could be a groundbreaking discovery of global proportion as they have developed a drug that has been proved effective in curing diabetes, while the first phase of producing a cure for the dreaded Lassa Fever has been completed.
The Director of AAUA’s Bio-Computing and Drug Development Centre, Dr Olaposi Omotuyi, dropped the hint on Monday last week during a public lecture entitled, Pharmacologic Strategy against Lassa Virus (Arenavirus) Targeting Human Pre-protein Convertase Site 1 Protease Upstream Glycoprotein Cleavage Pathway.
According to the Lecturer, Dr. Omotuyi, the diabetes drug was derived from indigenous plants and has proved potent in lowering high blood sugar level within few days of oral administration of the herbal drug.
He said, “We have developed a herbal medicine with strong potentials to cure diabetes, not just manage it like current drugs. The data we have as at now is that the herbal drug is able to regenerate damaged pancreas.
“We have been screening some local plants since 2015 and we have screened over 40 that have strong anti-diabetic properties. After extracting such properties, we divided them into components and tested them on laboratory animals whose blood sugar level was 500mg per deciliter before the experiment.
“After seven short days of oral administration of 10mg per kilogramme body weight, we were pleasantly surprised when we were able to completely bring down the hitherto high blood sugar level to less than 100mg per deciliter that continued for 28 days of no further administration of the drug.
“We have tested it in all the laboratories that we know. What remains now is to test same on humans. So, we have finished all the work and we now want to go into tablet production. We even have a name for it already. It will be called Diabeprem.
“As if that impending feat was not enough, the Centre has also completed the first phase of producing a cure for the dreaded Lassa Fever.
Dr. Omotuyi explained that the first phase involved testing the drug that was wholly developed in the laboratories of Adekunle Ajasin University on infected human cells in tests carried out in conjunction with Winnipeg University in Canada.
“That means that if we have an outbreak of Lassa Fever in about two years’ time, our drug could be among the experimental ones to be used, Dr. Omotuyi said.”
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