Scientists find drug candidate for TB, malaria
Indian scientists have created a common drug candidate capable of tackling tuberculosis (TB) and malaria–the nation’s two most common health problems–though it will take several years before the breakthrough in the laboratory is translated into a medicine.
A common drug against the two big killer diseases was a dream
for scientists for years. But biologists in Delhi have
successfully tested the candidate–a peptide (type of
protein) molecule called M5–in the laboratory and found
that it reduces the diseases load by 80 per cent in TB and
malaria.
“It is promising, but several years of
research is required before we come anywhere close to trying
this molecule as a drug. In the next step, we will test this
protein in malaria infected mice to see the response,”
Anand Ranganathan, one of the principal investigators at
International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
(ICGEB), Delhi, told Deccan Herald.
When studied in the laboratory, M5 not only inhibits pathogen's
entry to human cells by 80 per cent in case of TB and malaria,
but it was also effective against drug resistant-strains of
malaria causing Plasmodium Falciparum parasite that has emerged
as a public health concern.
Drugs available at
present for treatment of both these infections have been failing
in cases with resistant strains of pathogens, causing
wide-spread alarm.
While globally there was 8.6
million new cases of TB with 1.3 million deaths in 2012, the
incidence of malaria, too, is equally staggering at 207 million
cases with 6, 27,000 deaths.
“We were looking
at an universal target and found M5 is promising. We will
keep on modifying the molecule,” said Gobardhan Das, one
of the team members from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
Besides
Ranganathan and Das, the team includes Pawan Malhotra of ICGEB
and several young researchers from ICGEB, JNU and All India
Institute of Medical Sciences. The research findings have been
published in the January 14 issue of “Nature
Communications”.
“It is a fantastic paper, though drug development is a log
way off. Four young groups have come together for this important
discovery, breaking the boundary of academic
institutions,” said Samir K Brahmachari, former
director-general of Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research.
The Delhi team pursued an innovative
approach as the target was a host (human) protein, rather than
one in the pathogen. “Most drugs target pathogenic
proteins. As a result, after few years the pathogen becomes
resistant to the drugs. This will not happen with M5,”
said Ranganathan.
M5, on the other hand, targets two
human proteins ICAM-1 (TB) and its cousin ICAM-4 (malaria) and
inhibits the invasion of human cells of two very different
pathogens significantly.
Source:
Deccan Herald
