LANDMARK AGREEMENT BETWEEN SAMOA AND UC BERKELEY COULD HELP SEARCH
FOR AIDS CURE

By Robert Sanders | 29 September 2004

BERKELEY The University of California, Berkeley, has signed an agreement
with the Samoan government to isolate from an indigenous tree the gene for a

promising anti-AIDS drug and to share any royalties from sale of a
gene-derived drug with the people of Samoa.

The agreement, announced today (Thursday, Sept. 30) in Apia, the capital of
Samoa, supports Samoa's assertion of national sovereignty over the gene
sequence of Prostratin, a drug extracted from the bark of the mamala tree
(Homalanthus nutans). The drug currently is being studied by scientists
around the world because of its potential to force the AIDS virus out of
hibernation in the body's immune cells and into the line of fire of
anti-AIDS drugs now in use.

"Prostratin is Samoa's gift to the world," explained Samoan Minister of
Trade Joseph Keil. "We are pleased to accept the University of California as

a full partner in the effort to isolate the Prostratin genes."

Despite Prostratin's promise as an anti-AIDS drug, its supply is limited by
the fact that the drug has to be extracted from the bark and stemwood of the

mamala tree. Researchers in the laboratory of Jay Keasling, UC Berkeley
professor of chemical engineering, plan to clone the genes from the tree
that naturally produce Prostratin and insert them into bacteria to make
microbial factories for the drug. A similar technology is currently being
explored to produce the anti-malarial drug artemisinin.

"A microbial source for Prostratin will ensure a plentiful, high-quality
supply if it is approved as an anti-AIDS drug," said Keasling, who also is a

faculty affiliate with the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical
Research (QB3) and head of the Synthetic Biology Department at Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory. "We consider the actual gene sequences as part

of Samoa's sovereignty, and every effort will be made to reflect this fact."

The agreement, signed by Prime Minister Tuila'epa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi
of Samoa and UC Berkeley's Vice Chancellor for Research Beth Burnside, gives

Samoa and UC Berkeley equal shares in any commercial proceeds from the
genes. Samoa's 50 percent share will be allocated to the government, to
villages, and to the families of healers who first taught ethnobotanist Dr.
Paul Alan Cox how to use the plant. The agreement also states that UC
Berkeley and Samoa will negotiate the distribution of the drug in developing

nations at a minimal profit if Keasling is successful.

"This may be the first time that indigenous people have extended their
national sovereignty over a gene sequence" said Cox, director of the
Institute for Ethnobotany at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in
Hawaii. "It is appropriate, since the discovery of the anti-viral properties

of Prostratin was based on traditional Samoan plant medicine."

The National Cancer Institute, which patented Prostratin's use as an
anti-HIV drug, requires any commercial developer of Prostratin to first
negotiate an equitable benefit-sharing agreement with Samoa.

"I think that UC Berkeley could set a precedent both for biodiversity
conservation and genetic research by including indigenous peoples as full
partners in royalties for new gene discoveries that result from their
ancient medicines," Keasling said.

Keasling and a team of scientists led by Cox traveled to Samoa in early
August to meet with leaders in three Samoan villages where the tree grows.
They obtained the prior informed consent of the chief's council from each
village to assist in the research in return for a share of the Prostratin
gene proceeds. Dr. Gaugau Tavana, a Samoan educator from the National
Tropical Botanical Garden, presented a Samoan-language PowerPoint
presentation on genetic engineering in each village.

A previous royalty agreement on Prostratin was signed in 2001 by the Prime
Minister of Samoa and the AIDS ReSearch Alliance, which is sponsoring
clinical trials of Prostratin as an anti-AIDS therapy. That agreement would
return 20 percent of any commercial profits arising from the plant-derived
compound to the people of Samoa.

Keasling and his Samoan collaborators will freeze living cells from the
mamala tree in liquid nitrogen so that extraction of the perishable RNA can
be conducted in the laboratory. Then begins the process of tracking down the

enzymes that actually build the molecule Prostratin.

Once Keasling has pinpointed the key enzymes and cloned their genes, he
plans to insert the genes into a strain of E. coli bacteria that he has
created to produce isoprenoid compounds like Prostratin. The product of more

than 10 years of genetic engineering, the bacterial factories have already
proven useful in producing precursors of the anti-malarial drug artemisinin,

which he hopes to produce inexpensively for people in the developing world.
The process also can be used to produce flavors and fragrances, many of
which also are members of the class of chemical compounds called
isoprenoids.