Dr Natalie Netzler has been awarded funds to research indigenous medicinal knowledge to find new treatments for viral diseases. Photo: Supplied / Auckland University
Traditional medicines in Samoa and Aotearoa are being investigated for their potential to treat viral illnesses.
Auckland University's senior lecturer Natalie Netzler - Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāti Hauā and Samoa - Moto'otua, Falealili - is working on combining indigenous medicinal knowledge and virology to find treatments for diseases such as dengue, Zika, and measles.
She told RNZ Nine to Noon that from an early age, the value of indigenous medicine has been embedded in her.
"When we were growing up, if we had a headache, we would always go to Dad, who would give us a traditional Samoan massage, called a fofo," she said.
"It's quite a firm massage and I have to say, as a child, I remember thinking that my skull was going to be crushed in his massive hands, but as soon as he lifted his hands away, then the headache was gone, just like Samoan magic."
Netzler said her work's main drive is to find broad spectrum anti-virals - essentially, one drug to cure lots of bugs.
She said last year, study funding led finding two Samoan traditional medicines that were effective against the virus that causes covid.
She said she is working closely with a number of trusted relationships in both Samoa and Aotearoa, mostly in Muriwhenua in the Far North.
"We establish independent governance, we make sure that we co-design the study, and then once it's in the lab, then I test it against a number of viruses to see if it can actually work as an antiviral.
"It's obviously really important that we protect both the taonga species of the plant as well as the indigenous intellectual property. It's really important that we make sure that everything we do is sustainable, so that we're not damaging the whenua.
"The last thing we want is for extractive processes where all of a sudden 'Big Pharma' come in and plant like 100 acres of these plants and it's all very removed from the way it should be done."
She said if the medicine appears to be effective against the virus, that information is relayed back to traditional healers. She also works with chemists.
"If we found a traditional Samoan medicine that has already been used for millennia for treating, say, respiratory disease or arthritis, and we know it's safe and effective for that use - if we can show that it's effective against dengue, then we communicate that back to the traditional healers, and they can start implementing that straight away.
"What we would envisage for something more large scale is ... working with the chemist to find something unique and patentable that could then be synthesized in a lab on a large scale, as opposed to making a production line.
"But it's not to say that there couldn't be a side commercial opportunity for these community partners to maybe come up with their own nutraceuticals and develop it in their own way, as kaitiaki of their own whenua."
Dengue in Aotearoa
Currently, the country does not have the mosquitoes that transmit the disease, but Netzler said global warming could change that.
Last year, the World Health Organisation's Pacific technical support director Dr Mark Jacobs said July regional data showed the number of suspected dengue cases was at the highest since 2016.
Samoa is still grappling with cases, and the Cook Islands announced the first dengue-related death of their current outbreak earlier this month.
"I think we're really at the brunt of global warming in the Pacific. And so what we're seeing is that the rainy season seems to be lasting longer, and these dengue outbreaks, which are usually just confined to the rainy season, they are sort of scattered throughout the year now," Netzler said.
"We're getting a large number of dengue imports into Aotearoa New Zealand every year. The key difference with the Pacific nations and [New Zealand] is that currently we don't have the Aedes mosquitoes that can transmit dengue and Zika.
"However, with global warming up in the Far North, we are actually now warm enough to support the overwintering of ... those species in the water. And so what that means is that, with dengue being imported all the time here, and with the chance of the mosquito coming in, we really are under great risk of getting local transmission of dengue and Zika. And so we really need to be ahead of that game."
Dengue cases have been imported into New Zealand, but cannot be transmitted person-to-person.
