MYSURU: In a big relief to cancer patients, the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, National University, in collaboration with the Chemistry Department of Mysuru University and Bengaluru University, is in the process of developing a new drug that can treat various types of cancer.
The stakeholders are expediting Chinese investments for the new drug development. This drug will be a blessing for patients who have no advanced medicines to treat liver, colon, lung and a majority of breast cancers.
Cancer Science Institute of Singapore Prof and Principal Investigator Peter E Lobic in collaboration with senior scientist and Mysore University V-C K S Rangappa and Department of Chemistry Assistant Professor Basappa have worked for 18 months to develop the drug seed, its design, synthesis and characterisation which was carried out at the varsity lab.
Three molecules that were sent to the Cancer Science Institute were studied for its bio-activities experimenting mouse model on isolated breast cancer cells.
“The Indian chemistry and Singapore biological research have worked well. Presently, breast cancer treatment is not effective. But the new drug can meet the needs of 60 per cent of patients,” Lobic said.
He observed that there is an increase in the breast cancer cases in South and East Asia and said the government cannot fund the expensive treatment to people in both urban and rural India.
Disclosing that preliminary talks are on with investors from China as the new drug can revolutionalise cancer treatment, Peter E Lobic said: “Because of the major breakthrough at the clinical stage, our team decided to go for toxicology and drug registration.”
Thanking the government for base funding for research, he said if everything goes as per plan, the new drug will be available in two years.
Vijay Kumar Pandey from Cancer Science Institute of Singapore said BAD proteins increase stimulation of cancer progression.
He said the new drug will specifically target cancer cells without damaging new cells. A series of small molecules are generated to target the bad cells using the multi component reaction called Petasis reaction.
Refuting to disclose the formula, he said using the Laplacian-modified Naive Bayes classifier, one of the molecules named NPB was predicted to specifically interact with BAD.
He said the NPB treatment significantly diminished phosphorylated BAD proteins in tumour tissue and inhibited tumour growth. Thus, the NPB is a potent pro-apoptotic agent that specifically targets a mechanism of cancer cell survival to selectively kill cancer cells via inhibiting BAD phosphorylation.
Women’s congress tucked away?
The paper presentations of Women’s Science Congress began at a tucked away corner of the vast grounds of Manasa Gangothri, presenting a challenge for several people to even locate the place. The session, ironically, saw women scientists explain the challenges faced by them in moving ahead in their chosen fields of research.
Need to Reinvent flush toilet
Speaking on Cleaning Ganga and affordable water and sanitation solutions, at Indian Science Congress, Sunita Narain, Director-General, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) New Delhi, and a recipient of World Water Prize, has stressed the need to reinvent flush toilet so that it can be affordable to many and at the same recycle and reuse human excreta to turn waste to resource.
Environment protection responsiblity
Kashinath Bhattacharya, Department of Botany, Visva Bharati University, West Bengal said it is reponsibility of every citizen to keep our environment clean at a session on ‘Assessment and Mitigation of Air Quality in major cities of India, in terms of inorganic and organic pollutants’ at the 103rd Indian Science Congress here on Tuesday.
Tomato Variety with Long Shelf Life
Scientists working on radiation technology in the agriculture sector are likely to come out with a variety which has longer shelf life and more solid content. These tomatoes can be stored for two to three weeks. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Raja Ramanna fellow S F D’Souza said the new variety will be disease-resistant.