on the 31st of March 2016
a young man returning from the Solomon
Islands presented at an emergency
department at one of Brisbane hospitals
soon after he would be diagnosed with
the first reported case of the Zika
virus in Australia and in that moment
the Zika virus which had both horrified
and captivated the world was no longer a
distant threat oceans countries and
continents away it had hit our shores
as the initial outbreak spread from
patient to patient village to village
town to town and country to country news
stories concerning the phenomenal spread
of the virus were prolific this was no
doubt due in part to the at times
devastating side effects of the zika
virus at its peak you could not go a
single day without hearing news of it
now although the Zika virus generally
only causes mild symptoms it is actually
becoming a major health issue due to
factors which include its ability to
replicate in those cells which line the
vaginal wall it remains viable in semen
six months post infection and its
capacity to infect fetal brains in utero
resulting in numerous devastating birth
defects including micro carefully as you
can see in the image behind me by May
2017 the CDC estimated that there were
currently 50 countries with active Zika
virus alike so
any people around the world I watched
the news coverage with an overwhelming
sense of empathy and concern concern for
the babies born with microcephaly
concern for the parents and concern for
the healthcare workers unable to halt
the spread of the virus unable to
console the parents because there was no
treatment for the Zika virus but unlike
many of those around the world
I’m biochemist whose research focuses on
by discovery with a particular emphasis
on the healing abilities of Australian
native plants
so as the seemingly endless news
coverage continued it pushed me to ask
could the work the bio discovery work
that myself and my team were conducting
could it provide a solution was it
possible that an Australian native plant
had the ability to kill the Zika virus
the more I thought about it the more I
was convinced that there was definitely
potential there my current research to
date had already shown that Australian
native plants could definitely produce
scientifically validated medicines now I
was on to something something that if
proved incorrect could have global
implications I mentioned the idea of
screening a couple of native plants to
my husband we were standing in the
kitchen at home and he turned to me and
said what that’s not going to work I
stood my ground
yeah I stood my ground and told him that
my gut instinct was telling me otherwise
now being a scientist himself with who’s
actually quite experienced in the rigors
of scientific exploration and discovery
he asked are there any precedents the
plants with antiviral activity intrigued
and captivated and I was spurred on to
find scientific evidence to support this
but also to support my gut instinct I
marched straight to to my computer I
didn’t miss a beat
actually I did a search using a
scientific database and I had my answer
in less than 45 seconds yes there were
indeed precedents for plant-based
antiviral activity I was excited and I
was determined so for me my challenge
was to not only find a plant that could
totally kill the Zika virus but also to
find the money so that the work could be
conducted
so my next big hurdle was to try and
convince my industry partner that we
should go ahead with the project even
though by discovery is extremely costly
and there’s no guarantees of success but
we were talking about the Zika virus we
were talking about a virus that was
causing microcephaly in unborn and
newborn babies we were talking about a
virus that had the ability to jump
continents I was very hesitant to ask
for more money especially since my
industry partner had already been so
extremely generous in providing me with
funds for my other research however
a spurred on I made my best pitch of
course and I included the existing
precedence with regards to the
plant-based antiviral activity luckily
for all concerned
they agreed yes so the next stop the
next step was of course the lab now for
those of you that aren’t biochemists our
goal was actually quite simple or simple
when you say it really quickly what we
were trying to do is to find a plant
that could kill the Zika virus without
any damage to the host cells so to
determine whether we could do that I
selected two Australian native plants
methanol was used to extract the
bioactive compounds or put simply
compounds that have a biological effect
and now since the picture paints a
thousand words what you see here is a
plaque assay now a plaque I’ll say is a
way of determining how many infectious
viral particles there are across the
plate we have serial dilutions of the
virus or rather different concentrations
of the virus ranging from highest to
lowest here you can see a virus only
control where the virus appears as the
white spots next we have our extract
only control and in the middle we have
cells that were treated with either
plant species 8472 or species 8 473
18 hours post infection so when we look
at those cells that were treated with
species 8472 you can see there was
absolutely no effect in contrast when we
look at those cells that were treated
with species 8 4 7 3 you can see that we
have 100% total elimination of the Zika
virus
yes I think this is definitely history
in the making our results also showed
that there were no toxic effects or
damage to the primate cells that were
used in all of these experiments our
other work has also shown that not only
can we kill this at the virus outside
the cell we can also totally kill the
virus inside the cell so what this means
is we have 100% total clearance of the
Zika virus
until now no antiviral therapies or
vaccines have been available for the
treatment of Zika virus anywhere for
anyone in the world
hence the costs associated with the Zika
virus the spread of the Zika virus for
example in Latin America and the
Caribbean alone will total between 7 to
18 billion US dollars the human costs
associated with the spread of the Zika
virus has seen numerous pregnancy losses
babies born with microcephaly eye and
brain abnormalities and neural tube
deficits now none of these can be
measured in monetary value they can
however be measured in heartache and
tears and the hours that will now be
spent providing long-term care so our
main goal was to develop a novel therapy
that could not only kill the virus in
those individuals that are currently
infected with the Zika virus but also to
be used as a ravenna t’v treatment in
those areas where the Zika virus is rife
but this is only the beginning although
we have a potential treatment for
the Zika virus our future work will
focus on examining and assessing the
plants ability to kill other members of
the flava Verde family of which the Zika
virus is apart
for example the dengue virus like zika
dengue there is no treatment an
estimated costs indicate that 2.5
billion that is 30 percent of the
world’s population in over 100 countries
are currently at risk of infection
incredibly each year 390 million
patients are infected with dengue virus
of these 500,000 develop into
hemorrhagic fever a more severe form of
the disease which results in up to
24,000 deaths worldwide so if our client
can also is also shown to have an effect
and be able to kill the dengue virus can
you imagine the possibilities today we
have an our lab right by all means
appears to be a cure for the Zika virus
tomorrow who knows
what we will achieve
you
you
a young man returning from the Solomon
Islands presented at an emergency
department at one of Brisbane hospitals
soon after he would be diagnosed with
the first reported case of the Zika
virus in Australia and in that moment
the Zika virus which had both horrified
and captivated the world was no longer a
distant threat oceans countries and
continents away it had hit our shores
as the initial outbreak spread from
patient to patient village to village
town to town and country to country news
stories concerning the phenomenal spread
of the virus were prolific this was no
doubt due in part to the at times
devastating side effects of the zika
virus at its peak you could not go a
single day without hearing news of it
now although the Zika virus generally
only causes mild symptoms it is actually
becoming a major health issue due to
factors which include its ability to
replicate in those cells which line the
vaginal wall it remains viable in semen
six months post infection and its
capacity to infect fetal brains in utero
resulting in numerous devastating birth
defects including micro carefully as you
can see in the image behind me by May
2017 the CDC estimated that there were
currently 50 countries with active Zika
virus alike so
any people around the world I watched
the news coverage with an overwhelming
sense of empathy and concern concern for
the babies born with microcephaly
concern for the parents and concern for
the healthcare workers unable to halt
the spread of the virus unable to
console the parents because there was no
treatment for the Zika virus but unlike
many of those around the world
I’m biochemist whose research focuses on
by discovery with a particular emphasis
on the healing abilities of Australian
native plants
so as the seemingly endless news
coverage continued it pushed me to ask
could the work the bio discovery work
that myself and my team were conducting
could it provide a solution was it
possible that an Australian native plant
had the ability to kill the Zika virus
the more I thought about it the more I
was convinced that there was definitely
potential there my current research to
date had already shown that Australian
native plants could definitely produce
scientifically validated medicines now I
was on to something something that if
proved incorrect could have global
implications I mentioned the idea of
screening a couple of native plants to
my husband we were standing in the
kitchen at home and he turned to me and
said what that’s not going to work I
stood my ground
yeah I stood my ground and told him that
my gut instinct was telling me otherwise
now being a scientist himself with who’s
actually quite experienced in the rigors
of scientific exploration and discovery
he asked are there any precedents the
plants with antiviral activity intrigued
and captivated and I was spurred on to
find scientific evidence to support this
but also to support my gut instinct I
marched straight to to my computer I
didn’t miss a beat
actually I did a search using a
scientific database and I had my answer
in less than 45 seconds yes there were
indeed precedents for plant-based
antiviral activity I was excited and I
was determined so for me my challenge
was to not only find a plant that could
totally kill the Zika virus but also to
find the money so that the work could be
conducted
so my next big hurdle was to try and
convince my industry partner that we
should go ahead with the project even
though by discovery is extremely costly
and there’s no guarantees of success but
we were talking about the Zika virus we
were talking about a virus that was
causing microcephaly in unborn and
newborn babies we were talking about a
virus that had the ability to jump
continents I was very hesitant to ask
for more money especially since my
industry partner had already been so
extremely generous in providing me with
funds for my other research however
a spurred on I made my best pitch of
course and I included the existing
precedence with regards to the
plant-based antiviral activity luckily
for all concerned
they agreed yes so the next stop the
next step was of course the lab now for
those of you that aren’t biochemists our
goal was actually quite simple or simple
when you say it really quickly what we
were trying to do is to find a plant
that could kill the Zika virus without
any damage to the host cells so to
determine whether we could do that I
selected two Australian native plants
methanol was used to extract the
bioactive compounds or put simply
compounds that have a biological effect
and now since the picture paints a
thousand words what you see here is a
plaque assay now a plaque I’ll say is a
way of determining how many infectious
viral particles there are across the
plate we have serial dilutions of the
virus or rather different concentrations
of the virus ranging from highest to
lowest here you can see a virus only
control where the virus appears as the
white spots next we have our extract
only control and in the middle we have
cells that were treated with either
plant species 8472 or species 8 473
18 hours post infection so when we look
at those cells that were treated with
species 8472 you can see there was
absolutely no effect in contrast when we
look at those cells that were treated
with species 8 4 7 3 you can see that we
have 100% total elimination of the Zika
virus
yes I think this is definitely history
in the making our results also showed
that there were no toxic effects or
damage to the primate cells that were
used in all of these experiments our
other work has also shown that not only
can we kill this at the virus outside
the cell we can also totally kill the
virus inside the cell so what this means
is we have 100% total clearance of the
Zika virus
until now no antiviral therapies or
vaccines have been available for the
treatment of Zika virus anywhere for
anyone in the world
hence the costs associated with the Zika
virus the spread of the Zika virus for
example in Latin America and the
Caribbean alone will total between 7 to
18 billion US dollars the human costs
associated with the spread of the Zika
virus has seen numerous pregnancy losses
babies born with microcephaly eye and
brain abnormalities and neural tube
deficits now none of these can be
measured in monetary value they can
however be measured in heartache and
tears and the hours that will now be
spent providing long-term care so our
main goal was to develop a novel therapy
that could not only kill the virus in
those individuals that are currently
infected with the Zika virus but also to
be used as a ravenna t’v treatment in
those areas where the Zika virus is rife
but this is only the beginning although
we have a potential treatment for
the Zika virus our future work will
focus on examining and assessing the
plants ability to kill other members of
the flava Verde family of which the Zika
virus is apart
for example the dengue virus like zika
dengue there is no treatment an
estimated costs indicate that 2.5
billion that is 30 percent of the
world’s population in over 100 countries
are currently at risk of infection
incredibly each year 390 million
patients are infected with dengue virus
of these 500,000 develop into
hemorrhagic fever a more severe form of
the disease which results in up to
24,000 deaths worldwide so if our client
can also is also shown to have an effect
and be able to kill the dengue virus can
you imagine the possibilities today we
have an our lab right by all means
appears to be a cure for the Zika virus
tomorrow who knows
what we will achieve
you
you
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