BENGALURU: The Karnataka health and family welfare department has written to Preeti Sudan, secretary, ministry of health and family welfare, regarding the development of a ‘Cytokine mediated Anti-COVID therapy’ developed by doctors Vishal Rao and Jyothsna Rao.
Jawaid Akhtar, additional chief secretary, state health department, said, “Dr Vishal Rao and his team of immunologists and cell biologists have submitted to us a proposal that holds promise to mitigate the current crisis, through the approach of ‘Cytokine mediated Anti-COVID therapy’. It is based on the rationale of how a child’s immune system is able to combat the virus and not the elderly.”
“This investigational therapy is an enriched cocktail of Cytokines, predominantly from TH1 immune cells and rich in interferons. The ethics committee approval for the same has been obtained,” he wrote.
Akhtar asks the ministry to issue necessary instructions to the Indian Council of Medical Research to review their detailed work on its merits, and consider permitting them to initiate clinical trials.
Dr US Vishal Rao is a member of the state government’s high-powered committee on tobacco control, and member of the consultative group to principal scientific advisors for GoI. Dr Jyothsna Rao is an immunologist who has worked with Dr Ralph Steinman, Nobel laureate, and Dr Gururaj Raon, cell and molecular biologist with a PhD from North Carolina University.