Pathfinding invention on way in Delhi lab

Prof Maitra says: 8220;When your family doctor prescribes you 500 mg dosage of antibiotic, you do not actually need the entire amount. In fact, you may not need a dose more than 5-10 mg. When you pop in a pill, the medicine is scattered throughout the body and only a small amount reaches the specific spot where the medicine is required. What we are trying to do is target the drug to the specific spot rendering it unnecessary to take in large amounts.8221;

Also, by decreasing the size of the particle, the researchers have ensured that it circulates in the blood stream for a longer time, before it is discarded from the body.

The experiments conducted were carried out in the DU laboratory over three years. 8220;Initially, we worked on our own without funding from any organisations,8221; says Dr P K Ghosh.8220;But as the experiments progressed, we needed money to update the laboratory. Finances came from the department of biotechnology.8221;

After years of toil, their research has now paid off. The team has received a joint US patent for their work. The newly patented drug delivery system has been licensed by the patent holders to the leading Ayurvedic manufacturer, Dabur India Limited. The firm intends to use the system to develop its new anti-cancer drug.

Says researcher Sanjeeb Sahoo: 8220;Most anti-cancer drugs are toxic. The drugs also have side-effects on other parts of the body. But if one can target the drug to the tumour alone, so that, it does not mingle with anything else, the effect of toxicity will be lessened.8221;

Experts are enthusiastic about their achievement. Says Prof Vinod Raina, acting head of the department of Medical Oncology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences. 8220;The hypothesis that Maitra and his fellow scientists are working on definitely stands on solid ground. If they can develop a non-toxic anti-cancer drug using the smallest synthetic polymer nano-particle that can target the exact site of the infection, it will be of great use in treating cancer patients,8221; he says. 8220;I cannot comment on their work unless their drug actually comes to the market. But indeed, it is a great beginning.8221;

The patent holders are now getting busy developing their research further. Animal experiments have only just begun and trials of these nano-particles on humans is yet to happen.

For now, the animal experiments have yielded interesting results. When the scientists injected the drug into the body of a mice 8212; part of the drug continued to circulate in the blood stream for a longer time that expected while the other part was discarded. Of course, the researchers realise that the experiments may yield completely different results in the human body which has its own complicated process and reactions.

Says Prof Maitra,8220;I am now working along with Dabur India scientists in exploring the potentialities of the process in preparing anti-cancer drugs for cancer patients. In fact, an entire Dabur team has been deputed for this purpose.8221;

Meanwhile, research scholar Tapas K De, an IIT alumni, has already flown to the USA for research in the area. He spends his days in the biochemistry laboratory at the University of Seattle 8212; working on nano-particles that can change the science of drug therapy.

Research scholar Sahoo, who comes from a farmer8217;s family in a remote Oriya village, is flying to Japan today on a Japanese Society for Promotion of Science fellowship to conduct further research in the area. He says: 8220;Our DU laboratory is not well-equipped. In Japan, I will be working in a state-of-the-art laboratory for two years.8217;

Sahoo has not even been able to tell his parents about the trip. 8220;My village does not even have a telephone. The nearest booth is at least 10 kilometres away.8221;