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The University of the West Indies (UWI) has signed a groundbreaking pact with a West African academic institution to conduct research to find a cure for Type 2 diabetes mellitus, also known as adult-onset diabetes.

This country, which has one of the world’s highest rates of amputations resulting from diabetes, will become one of two homes for the in-depth study that will be undertaken by the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in Ghana and the soon-to-be-established Transatlantic Centre of Excellence for Translational Research based at the Cave Hill Campus of the UWI.

Senior Lecturer in Pharmacology in the Faculty of Medical Sciences broke the news during an interview with Barbados TODAY on Thursday.

He said the historic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which was signed earlier this year by the academic institutions’ Vice Chancellors – Professor Sir Hilary Beckles of UWI and Professor Johnson Boamping of UCC – but is only now being made public here, is focused on fixing the amputation problem in Barbados as well as in Ghana which has a similar issue.

Dr Cohall, who is also the Director of the PhD Pharmacology programme and Head of the Department of Preclinical and Health Sciences  identified two main initiatives that will flow from the MOU.

“One, the development of a Transatlantic Research Project which is looking at identifying a cure for diabetes – and not only diabetes, type 2 diabetes mellitus but also looking at a potential cure for poor wound healing among diabetic patients.

“In Barbados, and if you look at the research in Ghana, we know that there are significant levels of amputations in relation to type 2 diabetes and the diabetic foot. So, we are trying to fix that problem across the Atlantic,” Dr Cohall announced.

He added that the centre will propel Barbados into moving its herbal practices from the “very so-called non-conventional” way in which they are perceived by the medical fraternity.

“We are going to do the research. We are going to do the bench research in the labs, we are going to do the pre-clinical work with our animals, and we have an animal facility in the Faculty of Medical Sciences so we can test newly developed substances for medicinal sources in animals,” disclosed the author of the book Medicinal Plants of Barbados for the Treatment of Communicable and Non-communicable Diseases.

The author of many other publications, including Assessing Predictors for Sustainable Management of Type 2 Diabetes Using Evidence-Based Guidelines in Public Primary Care In Barbados, revealed that an Ethical Committee on campus had procedures to oversee animal studies including testing substances on animals.

The senior research scholar said the university wants to take the process to another level.

“We also want to look at the clinical relevance or the translational clinical impact of the new substances derived from plants. That is one of the key functions of that centre, to ensure that we have the ability and the capacity to undertake clinical trials with new compounds identified from plants which can cure the disease, based on data which may have been derived from our pre-clinical trials with animals,” he explained.

Dr Cohall also said the UWI would welcome a partnership with the Barbados Government on the project.

He said the MOU also included Aspong MH Ventures, a herbal production company in Ghana, which will facilitate collaboration in teaching, research and outreach in the area of traditional herbal medicine, primarily between the two academic institutions and the industry partner.

“The centre is in its early stage of development where it will operate as a virtual entity between the two academic institutions across the Atlantic. The necessary administrative steps are being discussed between both sites to have the centre established. Currently, a concept note which outlines the conceptual framework of the project and the centre is being reviewed before being submitted to likely funders.

“Possible funders of such an initiative may be Afreximbank, Caribbean Development Bank and possibly the respective governments. The scope of the work in the centre will include developing the capacity for training and research in the development of herbal medicines at the academic institutions and to propel a traditional herbal medicine industry in both jurisdictions,” he added.

The academic also disclosed that the centre will initially be virtual, reducing the cost of a physical structure, but a building will eventually be constructed.

Dr Cohall pointed out that, recently, the Centre for Plant Medicine Research (CPMR), a government-funded traditional herbal medicine research and healthcare institution in Ghana, also expressed an interest in partnering with the UWI and UCC in the Transatlantic Centre of Excellence for Translational Research initiative.

An MOU between the UWI and CPMR is currently being reviewed.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb