Tu Youyou (Chinese:屠呦呦;pinyin:Tú Yōuyōu; born on December 30, 1930, in Ningbo, Zhejiang province) is a Nobel Prize-winning malariologist and pharmaceutical chemist and member of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. She received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2015 for her discovery and development ofartemisinin and related compounds. Tu pursued her education in pharmaceutical sciences at the Peking University School of Medicine (Beijing Medical College) and later focused on traditional Chinese medicine at the Institute of Materia Medica. Her achievements and experience have inspired other researchers and emphasized the development of traditional Chinese medicine.
Malaria is caused by a single-cell parasite that causes severe fever. During the Vietnam War in 1967, China and Vietnam were significantly affected by malaria, with approximately 30 million cases and 300,000 deaths just from China. Scientists worldwide had screened over 240,000 compounds without success for finding a cure. She then investigated the history of Chinese medical classics, visiting practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine across the country on her own. She gathered her findings in a notebook titled "A Collection of Single Practical Prescriptions for Anti-Malaria." By 1971, her team had screened over 2,000 traditional Chinese recipes and made 380 herbal extracts, from some 200 herbs, which were tested on mice. Finally, she discovered breakthrough medicines, artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria. In the 1970s, after studies of traditional herbal medicines, Tu Youyou focused on sweet wormwood and extracted a substance, artemisinin, that inhibits the malaria parasite. Artesunate is special among artemisinin-based drugs because it dissolves in water, allowing rapid absorption into the body. The fast absorption enables the doctor to inject the medicine into a vein, muscle, or rectum; moreover, severe malaria can cause symptoms that deteriorate quickly, and patients can't take medicine orally. Artemisinin-based medication has led to the survival and improved health of millions of people. This treatment saved millions of lives in South China, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America.
Until now, artemisinin and its derivatives remain the most important and widely used drugs for the treatment of malaria. However, artemisinin requires ongoing research into new therapies because parasites are showing resistance. Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) further discovers and develops the project from the discovery of Tu Youyou. MMV's strategy to 2030 aims to cure, prevent, and eliminate malaria by developing a strong pipeline of future medicines.
My [first] name,Youyou, was given by my father, who adapted it from the sentence呦呦鹿鳴, 食野之蒿[3] translated as "Deer bleatyouyou while eating wildHao" in theChineseBook of Odes. How this links my whole life withqinghao will probably remain an interestingcoincidence forever.
She attendedXiaoshi Middle School for junior high school and the first year of high school, before transferring toNingbo Middle School in 1948. A tuberculosis infection interrupted her high-school education, but inspired her to go into medical research.[5] From 1951 to 1955, she attendedPeking University Medical School / Beijing Medical College.[note 2] In 1955, Youyou Tu graduated from Beijing Medical University School of Pharmacy and continued her research on Chinese herbal medicine in the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. Tu studied at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and graduated in 1955. Later Tu was trained for two and a half years intraditional Chinese medicine.
After graduation, Tu worked at the Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (now the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medical Sciences[note 1]) in Beijing.
During her early years in research, Tu studiedLobelia chinensis, a traditional Chinese medicine believed to be useful for treatingschistosomiasis,[7] caused bytrematodes which infect theurinary tract or theintestines, which was widespread in the first half of the 20th century in South China.
In 1967, during theVietnam War, PresidentHo Chi Minh ofNorth Vietnam asked Chinese PremierZhou Enlai for help in developing a malaria treatment for his soldiers trooping down theHo Chi Minh trail, where a majority came down with a form of malaria which is resistant tochloroquine. Because malaria was also a major cause of death in China's southern provinces, especiallyGuangdong andGuangxi, Zhou Enlai convincedMao Zedong to set up a secret drug discovery project namedProject 523 after its starting date, 23May 1967.[8]
In early 1969, Tu was appointed head of theProject 523 research group at her institute. Tu was initially sent to Hainan, where she studied patients who had been infected with the disease.[9]
Scientists worldwide had screened over 240,000 compounds without success.[10] In 1969, Tu, then 39 years old, had an idea of screening Chinese herbs. She first investigated the Chinese medical classics in history, visiting practitioners oftraditional Chinese medicine all over the country on her own. She gathered her findings in a notebook calledA Collection of Single Practical Prescriptions for Anti-Malaria. Her notebook summarized 640 prescriptions. By 1971, her team had screened over 2,000 traditional Chinese recipes and made 380 herbalextracts, from some 200 herbs, which were tested on mice.[8]
One compound was effective, sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua), which was used for "intermittent fevers," a hallmark of malaria. As Tu also presented at the project seminar, its preparation was described in a recipe from a 1,600-year-oldtraditional Chinese herbal medicine text titledEmergency Prescriptions Kept Up One's Sleeve. At first, it was ineffective because they extracted it with traditional boiling water. Tu discovered that a low-temperature extraction process could be used to isolate an effective antimalarial substance from the plant;[11] Tu says she was influenced by the source, written in 340 byGe Hong, which states that this herb should be steeped in cold water.[12] This book instructed the reader to immerse a handful ofqinghao in water, wring out the juice, and drink it all.[13] Since hot water damages the active ingredient in the plant, she proposed a method using low temperature ether to extract the effective compound instead.Animal tests showed it was completely effective in mice and monkeys.[8]
In 1972, she and her colleagues obtained the pure substance and named itqinghaosu (青蒿素), orartemisinin in English.[11][14][15] This substance has now saved millions of lives, especially in thedeveloping world.[16] Tu also studied thechemical structure and pharmacology of artemisinin.[11] Tu's group first determined the chemical structure of artemisinin. In 1973, Tu was attempting to confirm thecarbonyl group in the artemisinin molecule when she accidentally synthesizeddihydroartemisinin.
Tu volunteered to be the first human test subject. "As head of this research group, I had the responsibility," she said. It was safe, so she conducted successful clinical trials with human patients. Her work was published anonymously in 1977.[8] In 1981, she presented the findings related to artemisinin at a meeting with theWorld Health Organization.[17][18]
For her work on malaria, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine on 5 October 2015.
Tu is regarded as the "Three-Without Scientist"[20] – no postgraduate degree (there was no postgraduate education then in China), no study or research experience abroad, and not a member of either of the Chinese national academies, theChinese Academy of Sciences andChinese Academy of Engineering.[21] Tu is now regarded as a representative figure of the first generation of Chinese medical workers since theestablishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.[22]
October 2015,Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015 (co-recipient) for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against malaria, awarded one half of this prize; andWilliam C. Campbell andSatoshi Ōmura jointly awarded another half for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infection with roundworm parasites.[29]
^abThe Beijing-based Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (中医研究院) was established in 1955 and renamed the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (中国中医研究院) in 1985 and then the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medical Sciences (中国中医科学院) in 2005. Tu Youyou has been working at the Academy since 1955. The Academy was subsidiary to theMinistry of Health and is now directly under theState Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
^abPeking University Medical School (北京大学医学院) became the independent Beijing Medical College (北京医学院) in 1952. Tu Youyou attended it between 1951 and 1955. Later in 1985 it was renamed Beijing Medical University (北京医科大学), and was returned toPeking University asPeking University Health Science Center (北京大学医学部) since 2005.[6]
^Tu, Youyou."Acceptance remarks by Tu Youyou".Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award. New York:Lasker Foundation.Equipped with a sound knowledge in both traditional Chinese medicine and modern pharmaceutical sciences, my team inherited and developed the essence of traditional Chinese medicine using modern science and technology and eventually, we successfully accomplished the discovery and development of qinghaosu from qinghao (Artemisia annua L).
^"Official Biography" (in Chinese). China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences.Archived from the original on 6 September 2011. Retrieved20 February 2023.
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