Live
- World Social Media Day: History, Significance, and Key Facts
- Bejan Daruwalla’s horoscope
- Inner cleansing must for outer harmony
- PM Modi to unveil three books on Venkaiah Naidu
- Four primary health centres get national recognition
- Rain and Spirituality
- Clear clogged manholes on a war-footing
- NDA leaders concentrate on BRAU nominated officials
- Gold rates in Visakhapatnam today stable, check the rates on 30 June, 2024
- Govt will ensure growth of pharma: Revanth
Just In
IIT Roorkee researchers identify molecule with antiviral activity
Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee (IIT-R), Researchers have identified a molecule that exhibits antiviral activity against Chikungunya virus. The antiviral activity achieved around 99 percent reduction in the virus. At present, there are no drugs or vaccine available in the market to treat Chikungunya disease.
Hyderabad: Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee (IIT-R), Researchers have identified a molecule that exhibits antiviral activity against Chikungunya virus. The antiviral activity achieved around 99 percent reduction in the virus. At present, there are no drugs or vaccine available in the market to treat Chikungunya disease.
The Research Team led by Prof ShaillyTomar, Department of Biotechnology, IIT Roorkee, used structure-based studies of Chikungunya virus specific nsP2 protease to identify molecules — Pep-I and Pep-II — that exhibited protease inhibitory as well as antiviral activity.
Speaking about the importance of this Research, Prof. ShaillyTomar said, "The nsP2 protease is a strict viral enzyme. Means it is absent in humans, and thus, is an excellent antiviral drug target for chikungunya virus. Our research group has targeted nsP2 using biochemical and structure-based approach. We identified a molecule that not only possesses anti-nsP2 activity but also effectively kills the chikungunya virus in the cellbased assays."
One of the two molecules — Pep-I — has higher antiviral activity against chikungunya virus. The PeP-I molecule inhibits the enzymatic activity of nsP2 viral protein and in cell based assay proves to be an effective antiviral molecule. Speaking about the future work that is going to be done in this direction, Prof ShaillyTomar said, "Derivatives of PeP-I and PeP-I like molecules are being developed that will be tested for their antiviral potential in animal model"
According to the researchers, any molecule that inhibits nsP2 protease should possess antiviral activity. To test the hypothesis they carried out antiviral studies using cell lines. The Pep-II molecule showed reduced antiviral activity of only 50% even at a higher concentration of about 200 microMolar. The antiviral activity was tested by adding the molecules directly into the virus culture. The two molecules also reduced the viral RNA thus confirming the antiviral activity
According to Rajat Mudgal, the research scholar from the Department of Biotechnology,IIT Roorkee, and one of the first authors of the paper, "Out of the two molecules, PeP-I is more effective as an antiviral molecule as no virus was detected in cultured cells at concentration as low as 10 M. "
According to Harvijay Singh,the research scholar from the Department of Biotechnology,IIT Roorkee, the other first author of the paper, "We developed a high throughput FRET based nsP2 protease assay and inhibitory activity of the two molecules PeP-I and Pep-II was confirmed using this biochemical assay."
© 2024 Hyderabad Media House Limited/The Hans India. All rights reserved. Powered by hocalwire.com