Hong Kong Baptist University’s researchers adopting interdisciplinary approach to major health challenges receive accolades
The HKBU’s “Outstanding Research Output Award 2024” honours two researchers in the School of Chinese Medicine (SCM).
The researchers’ award-winning papers in the Health and Drug Discovery cluster focus on potential therapeutic interventions for Alzheimer’s Disease and obesity.
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Alzheimer's disease (AD) and obesity are two significant health challenges impacting Hong Kong’s aging population: they not only strain the healthcare system but also affect the overall quality of life for individuals and communities.
Statistics from the Department of Health (DH) show that the number of people aged 60 and above with dementia in Hong Kong is projected to soar more than threefold to over 332,600 people from 2009 to 2039. The rising prevalence of AD puts extra strain on Hong Kong due to its rapidly aging population.
Dr. Wong’s award-winning paper, “Artesunate treats obesity in male mice and non-human primates through the GDF15/GFRAL signalling axis,” shows that treatment with artesunate, an artemisinin derivative approved by the FDA for the treatment of severe malaria, effectively reduces body weight and improves metabolic profiles in preclinical models of obesity, including male mice with overnutrition-induced obesity and male cynomolgus macaques with spontaneous obesity, without inducing nausea and malaise.
He has received numerous awards in recognition of his dedication to scientific research. These include the “Mrs Thangam Vasudevan Award” for the best research paper in any aspect of Biomedical Sciences by the Indian Association of Biomedical Scientists in Chennai, India, in 2013; the “Young Investigator Award” at the International Alzheimer’s Disease Conference in Hong Kong in 2019; and the “Research Excellence Award 2023” by AGRI INNOVA-2023 International Conference in India in 2023.
Dr Iyaswamy has been actively involved in advanced research projects for potential remedies for AD. These include a study that has developed a novel drug delivery system for Gouteng (a Chinese herb) compound for AD treatment, and the development of a Chinese medicine formula named ‘NeuroDefend’ to treat AD.
“I have been striving hard to fulfill my research goal toward the remedies for early detection, diagnostics, and therapeutics of AD,” says Dr Iyaswamy. “My current research is a blend of multidisciplinary fields of biomedical sciences including neuroscience and pharmacology, which can be manifested in an array of biomedical applications. Over the years we have been building an interdisciplinary research team with expertise in molecular, analytical, biophysical chemistry, biomedical, and neuroscience, by working together to tackle the unmet therapeutic challenges for AD.”
Fighting obesity
“My research on metalloproteinases and their targets in the regulation of cell signalling yielded new insights into previously unappreciated or unrecognised mechanisms underlying energy intake, metabolic homeostasis, and human health, laying the framework for new fields of research investigating the microenvironmental regulation of developmental processes, tissue homeostasis, and disease pathogenesis,” says Dr Wong, who received HKBU’s Outstanding Performance honour in 2021 and 2022 for his major research contributions to obesity, COVID-19 therapeutics, diabetes, and irritable bowels.
In 2023, he was awarded the Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macao) under the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
His paper that led to the Outstanding Research Output Award 2024 explains the mechanism of how artesunate helps reduce body weight in obese mice without significant adverse effects.
“Given the strong anti-obesity effects of artesunate demonstrated by the results of our experiments using a primate model, it is suggested that artesunate can be repurposed as an effective therapeutic agent for the treatment of human obesity, which may bring better treatment results for obese patients,” Dr Wong says.
Both Dr Iyaswamy and Dr Wong’s papers are in the Health and Drug Discovery cluster, one of four strategic clusters identified by HKBU.
The final article in the series will focus on award-winning research papers in the Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence and Humanities and Cultures clusters.