The Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine under the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre(AIMS) has announced that they have developed a new drug for leukaemia patients.
The Centre has developed a nanomedicine which has shown significant ability to kill the cancer cells that are drug resistant, said a statement issued by the Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine. In certain cases the patients suffering from Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) have little chances of survival due to resistance to the drug Imatinib. Drug resistance arises due to certain point mutations in the leukaemia cells.
The new medicine has been developed considering these factors over a period of three years and has shown success in in-vitro studies.
The Centre is now conducting animal trials as part of the pre-clinical studies. If the pre-clinical trials are successful, the new nanomedicine may be submitted for clinical trial approval to the Union Government of India, the statement said.
The senior scientists involved in the research were Dr Manzoor Koyakutty, professor, and Dr Shantikumar Nair, Centre Director and Dean of Research. Clinicians from the hospital - Dr Pavithran, Dr Neeraj and Dr Prabhu - along with a student Archana Ratnakumari were involved in the project.