IIT-Delhi researchers develop drug molecules that can help treat diseases like Japanese Encephalitis, Alzheimer’s

“Drugs are mostly organic molecules that interact with molecules present in the human body. The molecules in the body are bigger in size and are typically called macromolecules. These molecules are either proteins or nucleic acids. Presently, computer-aided rational drug discovery is utilised to find the target molecule for a particular protein target. Still, this takes a considerable amount of time,” the institute said in a statement.

“The researchers have come up with a chemical strategy based on the macromolecular mimicry. Molecules have shapes just like objects. Designing and synthesising molecules with diverse shapes is an art in itself. Mimicking (copying) the macromolecular interface by uniquely shaped small molecules is an approach adopted by the research group,” it added.

The researchers utilised tools of Organic Chemistry and Biophysics to design molecules that target protein interface.

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“They developed a universal privileged scaffold approach for the design of a variety of inhibitors. The universal scaffold could be converted to a specific inhibitor for a given Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI), which makes the drug design approach relatively easier,” IIT said.

“We used this strategy to design drug molecules, which could be useful for the treatment of Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV), the main cause for viral encephalitis in Southeast Asian countries, and protein aggregation diseases such as Alzheimer’s and other related diseases. We have also patented the JEV inhibitor drug molecule,” said Haridas.

According to the researchers, the new drug designing strategy could also be adopted to treat retroviral infections.