DU develops molecule to tackle fatal malarial parasite

Dr Diwan S Rawat,Associate Professor of DU,is in Lucknow to present the research work in the four-day international conference on “Chemical Biology for Discovery” organised by the Indian Society of Chemists and Biologists at Central Drug Research Institute.

“While plasmodium vivex is a more common malarial parasite in the country,especially north India,plasmodium falciparum is a more severe form of malaria. The only medicine available for

falciparum is Artemisinin,which is an expensive medicine,” he said.

Speaking about the new molecule,Rawat said: “We have derived around 5 to 6 new compounds from tetraoxane — an already known but less explored class of compounds — which have shown better anti-malarial activity than Artemisinin.” “Due to inexpensive starting material from which the compound is derived and since the generation is merely compounded in a single step,the molecule will be more cost-effective,” added Rawat.

In Uttar Pradesh,plasmodium falciparum is responsible for 40 per cent of the deaths and is more prevalent in districts along the river Yamuna. Responsible for 90 per cent of deaths across the world due to malaria,the parasite is hard to diagnose. “The ailment tends to become fatal if not treated within 72 hours with a dose of Artemisinin,” said Rawat.

“Though tetraoxane was known for over a decade now,merely 120 compounds of it were known till we undertook two projects funded by Department of Science and Technology and Council for scientific research respectively to concentrate on the compounds. We derived as many as 200 compounds of the class,” said Rawat.

“We had collaborated with the University of Mississippi for the biological evaluation of the compounds and found that of these,more than 5 of the molecules have shown promising results against falciparum,” added Rawat.

“It has been tested on animal models and the next step is to go for clinical trials. The compounds have already been patented by us in 2008,” he added. The research was recently published in the scientific journal Medicinal Research Reviews. For this achievement,Dr Rawat was awarded Indian Society of Chemists and Biologists Young Scientist Award 2010 during the international conference,where leading scientist from across the globe,including Nobel Laureate for Chemistry Dr Robert H Grubbs also participated.