Inaugural Lecture by

Prof. Johnson
Nyarko Boampong
MALARIA TREATMENT FAILURES:
WHAT CAN WE DO?
 Inaugural Lecture by

Prof. Johnson
Nyarko Boampong
Professor of Parasitology
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast
Topic:

MALARIA TREATMENT FAILURES:

WHAT CAN WE DO?
Chairman:
Prof. Obeng Mireku
Chairman of University Council

20th May 2022 | School of Medical Sciences Auditorium.

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 1.45 pm Arrival of Guests

Programme 2 pm Opening Prayer

UCC Anthem
Introduction of Chairman - MC
Welcome Address and Introduction of Speaker - Chairman
Musical Interlude - MS. Mercy Akyianu
Lecture
Musical Interlude - Dom-Brempong Boampong & Co.
Chairman’s Remarks
Acknowledgements - Speaker
Congratulations: Professors
Pro Vice-Chancellor & Registrar
Wife & Children
Family & Friends
Faculty & Department
Affiliated Institutions
Research Partners
Acknowledgements - MC
Closing Prayer
Departure - MC

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 Prof. Johnson
Nyarko Boampong
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast
Professor of Parasitology
PhD in Tropical Medicine (Tokyo Women’s Medical University)
Fellow, Ghana College of Pharmacists
MPhil in Zoology (Applied Parasitology) (University of Ghana)
BPharm (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology)
BSc Biological Sciences (University of Cape Coast)
Diploma in Education (University of Cape Coast)

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 Professor Johnson Nyarko Boampong is a
Pharmacist and a Biomedical Scientist.
He is the Vice-Chancellor of the
University of Cape Coast. He is a Fellow
of the Ghana College of Pharmacists, and
a CV Raman Scholar. He is a member of
many international and local
Profile
professional associations and has
consulted widely on Community
Pharmacy Practice. He is also a Board
member of the Association of African
Universities.
Prof. Boampong started his Secondary
Education at New Edubiase Secondary
School in 1979 and completed at
Bompata Secondary School (now Presec,
Bompata) for his Ordinary Level
Certificate in 1984. He then proceeded to
Kumasi Academy from 1984 to 1986 for
his Advanced Level Certificate. Professor
Boampong obtained a BSc Degree and
Diploma in Education from the
University of Cape Coast between 1988
and 1992. He taught Biology and Core
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Science at Labone Secondary School and
Kumasi High School from 1992 to 1994
and 1998 to 2001, respectively. He was
appointed as Head of Science Unit at the
Kumasi High School from 1999 to 2001
and while there, he was adjudged the
second-best Science Teacher for the
Ashanti Region. He obtained a BPharm
degree from the Kwame Nkrumah
University of Science and Technology
between 1997 and 2001. He also pursued
an MPhil in Zoology (Applied
Parasitology) from the University of
Ghana between 1995 and 1999.
Prof. Boampong’s passion for
knowledge and interest in academia led
him to pursue further studies abroad
where he obtained a PhD in Tropical
Medicine between 2004 and 2007 from
Tokyo Women’s Medical University,
Japan, as a Japan International
Corporation Agency (JICA) scholar.
Thereafter, he was awarded a Post-
Doctoral Research Fellowship at the
Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and
Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, India as a CV Raman
Scholar in 2011.
Prof. Boampong’s research interests cover
multidisciplinary areas, a reflection of his diverse
professional training in the areas of Biomedical
Sciences and Pharmacy. These research areas include
Parasitic Diseases, Drug Resistant Parasites, Drug
Discovery and Targeted Drug Delivery. He has more
than sixty (60) scholarly publications in peer
reviewed journals to his credit. He has won many
grants which enabled him to undertake research;
attended many professional courses abroad and has
presented his research findings at different
international fora. He has also received training in
Higher Education Management from local and
international organisations and has gained
enormous practical administrative experience in
university administration.
He has taught at different levels in the University
and has supervised a number of MPhil and PhD
students with diverse backgrounds. His contribution
towards the training of postgraduate students,
especially PhD candidates, has been recognised by
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the University and he was awarded best PhD thesis
Principal Supervisor and Co-supervisor for
graduating students from the College of Health and
Allied Sciences and College of Agriculture and
Natural Sciences, respectively, during the 2016/2017
Academic Year. Some of his students are now
Lecturers, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professors
in universities in Ghana and elsewhere. He has also
mentored many lecturers and has served as external
examiner to other universities in Ghana and beyond.
Prof. Boampong has risen through the ranks and
has been at the forefront, providing academic
leadership in relevant sections of the University. He
became the Provost of the College of Health and
Allied Sciences after completing his three-year term
as Dean of the School of Biological Sciences. He
Headed the Department of Biomedical and Forensic
Sciences for five years prior to becoming the Dean.
During his tenure, he led the Department to establish
the following programmes: Certificate in Herbal
Medicine, BSc. Biomedical Sciences, BSc. Forensic
Sciences and, MPhil and PhD in Drug Discovery and
Development. He also promoted the establishment of
a functional Laboratory to advance research in the
School of Biological Sciences. As Dean, he ensured As part of his services to the community, he
the renovation and refurbishment of other established the Biomeid Pharmacia, a Community
laboratories, revamped the Botanical Garden and Pharmacy that provides pharmaceutical services to
enhanced international collaborations. As Provost, the University community. He believes that
he enthusiastically championed the establishment of universities should serve as engines of economic
the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences growth and development by building the mind-set of
which runs the Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm. D) students to be more entrepreneurial and creating the
programme. Again, working with international environment where students will be able to practice
partners, and playing a leading role, Prof. Johnson what they learn. Prof. Boampong is a Christian and is
Nyarko Boampong has facilitated the development of married with children.
the BSc Degree in Biophysics and MPhil Degree in
Medical Physics Curricula. Prof. Johnson Nyarko
Boampong has worked with successive Vice-
Chancellors of the University of Cape Coast to
promote internationalization. He has actively served
the University since 2001 and on the basis of
assessment of profile and reports, he is considered a
respected scholar, teacher and entrepreneur by
professional colleagues.
Currently as the Vice-Chancellor of the University
of Cape Coast, he is assiduously working to reposition
the University as a World-Class Entrepreneurial
University.

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MALARIA TREATMENT FAILURES:
WHAT CAN WE DO?

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 Malaria, an ancient devastating disease,
is caused by a protozoan parasite in the
zoological family of Plasmodiidae and
the genus of Plasmodium. There are
Synopsis generally four recognised species of
malaria parasites that infect humans,
namely; Plasmodium malariae (Leveran,
1881), P. vivax (Grassi and Felleti 1890), P.
falciparum (Welch 1897) and P. ovale
(Stephens, 1922). In addition, Plasmodium
knowlesi (Sinton & Mulligan, 1932) has
been identified as zoonotic species that
infects humans.
Human malaria parasites have an
elaborate life cycle with distinctive
stages that are adapted to survive in
both invertebrate host (vector) and
vertebrate host (humans). Though
humans mount arrays of soldiers in the
body to prevent the malaria parasite
from invading the liver and red blood
cells, the parasite overcomes all the
attacks and then settle to multiply. The
human malaria species are the most
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important agents that influenced the
evolution of red blood cell
polymorphism such as sickle cells,
thalassaemias, Gluoce-6-phosphate
dehydrogenase (G6PD), ovalocytosis and
others in humans to attenuate the
invasion processes of the parasites.
Although the disease is preventable
and treatable, malaria continues to pose
public health problems in tropical and
subtropical regions of the world.
According to 2021 World Health
Organisation (WHO) report, about 3.2
billion people were at risk of malaria in
eighty-five (85) countries and
territories. It was estimated that 241
million malaria cases occurred and
627,000 people died, out of which 80%
were mostly children under five (5) years
in Sub-Saharan Africa. With no readily
available effective malaria vaccine, the
WHO working through the United
Nations on the global stage has
implemented numerous intervention
strategies since the 1950s to eradicate and/or roll
back malaria. However, the progress made so far
remains uneven. It is now known that countries with
low malaria burden are moving towards malaria
elimination, with El Salvador and China being
certified by the WHO as malaria-free countries.
Despite, the progress made at the global level in
reducing or eliminating malaria, some African
countries continue to bear a high malaria burden,
and some are even losing grounds in fighting the
disease. Malaria situation in Africa is underpinned by
several interconnected challenges undermining all
intervention strategies. Examples of such challenges
are lack of robust and sustained international and
domestic financing, coupled with little or no
coordinated collaboration at the continental and
regional levels to fight the disease due to lack of
commitment of governments of the affected
countries. Other challenges are favourable climatic
and environmental factors that support survival of
the vector and thus increase malaria transmission,
emergence of Mosquitoes resistant to insecticides
and parasites resistant to antimalarial medicines/
drugs which invariably lead to treatment failures.
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Malaria treatment failure due to Chloroquine
resistance, for example, was reported in Ghana in
1965 and the falciparum malaria resistant strains
reported in 1986. Thereafter, reduced clearance of P.
falciparum was continuously reported until 2004
when Artemisinin based combination therapy (ACT)
was introduced to replace Chloroquine as the first
line treatment for uncomplicated malaria. P.
falciparum resistance to Artemisinin (ART)
derivatives has now swept across South-East Asia,
having first emerged a decade ago in Western
Cambodia. In vitro selections supported by
epidemiological data have demonstrated that ART
resistance is primarily determined by mutations in
the beta-propeller domain of P. falciparum Kelch
protein (K13) also known as Kelch 13. Mutations in
other genes of P. falciparum including multidrug
resistance protein 1 (Pfmdr1) have also been
associated with ART resistance in K13 mutant
parasites, providing the multigenic basis of parasite
resistance. It has been reported that P. falciparum
resistance to Artemisinins, the first-line antimalarial
drug, has occurred in most African countries,
including Ghana. No replacement antimalarial drugs
with safety and efficacy profiles comparable with
ACTs are available, and we are not aware of any
alternatives that are likely to be registered soon. Now
the question is “what can we do to prevent malaria
treatment failures?”
To surmount treatment failures, there should be
collective efforts at the global, continental, regional,
and national levels to ensure access to health
facilities for prompt diagnosis and, treatment and
effective vector control, whilst supporting research
to provide surveillance and to find an effective
vaccine and/ or new lead compounds.
Efforts are being made by our research team to
understand the biology and behaviour of the malaria
parasites particularly, P. falciparum. It has been
demonstrated that chemical agents could be used to
alter the erythrocyte shape to prevent invasion by
parasites. This has been confirmed in our field studies
that people with thalassaemic red blood cells have a
relatively reduced malaria infection. Other field
studies have also shown a high prevalence of
chloroquine resistant mutants in the population even
after the use of chloroquine has been proscribed.
We reported that five popular Antimalarial herbal
preparations that were analyzed and tested, showed
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chemo-suppressive activity against Plasmodium
berghei, a rodent malaria parasite, in vivo. However,
intentional addition of chloroquine to these herbal
preparations to enhance their effectiveness has
serious public health concerns as it may induce cross
resistance to Amodiaquine, one of the partner drugs
in the recommended ACT for use in Ghana.
In this lecture, I provide an overview of malaria as
an ancient disease and a discussion of how the
parasites have survived despite all the intervention
strategies to eliminate them but remain the ruling
champions. I present my research works of
understanding the parasite biology and efforts being
made to identify new lead compounds that can be
used as either single drugs or in combination with
other lead compounds in readiness for clinical trials
should there be the need for introduction of new
antimalarial drugs to replace the ACTs. To sustain
progressive malaria research culture, I demonstrate
my contribution towards the training of young
scientists and the creation of laboratories. I then
advocate for the rejuvenation of all intervention
strategies at both national and international levels.
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We counsel, we guide that all may be enlightened

Chorus:
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