Prof. Kiaran and his ten associates from Australian National University came for a reason “They want to look for cooperative opportunity with ITB. Research on malaria by Prof. Kiaran Kirk is compatible and coherent with pharmaceutical study program. Some lecturers of ours also conduct researches on malaria, researching the parasites, natural medicine, and the medium,” explained Catur Riani, the lecturer from Kelompok Keahlian Farmasetika ITB. Prof. Kiaran explained systematically the progress of malaria medicine, from quinine, chloroquine, arteminisin, to his finding the KAE609. With his research “Fighting Malaria Parasites with Chemical Welfare,” Prof. Kiaran attracted the participants of the guest lecture in Q&A session.

About KAE609
Medicine for malaria was first discovered in quinine leaf containing quinine compound. Eventually, however, the compound is no longer effective to cure malaria because the parasite develops resistance toward the compound. Moreover, quinine production that requires high Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) is not profitable enough for Pharmaceutical industry. The next medicine for malaria was then discovered in chloroquine compound. However, Plasmodium vivax also develops resistance despite chloroquine is proven to kill the microbes. The same thing also befalls artemisinin compound discovered in China.

In his research, Prof. Kiaran Kirk has done screening to thousands of compounds and found one promising compound, KAE609. He tested it to Plasmodium vivax and it proved to kill the parasite. KAE609 impairs pump system in parasite’s cell and causes excessive Na+ reaction. The drug will only affect the pump system of the parasite. However, the parasite has also developed resistance.

Reporter : Muh. Khasan Abdurrohman 
(School of Business and Management) 
ITB Journalist Apprentice 2017 
Image source: Author’s documentation