A team of researchers in IIT-Guwahati has developed a new strategy to deliver chemotherapeutic drugs directly to the infected cells of a cancer patient and thereby reducing side effects significantly, said the institute in a statement.
Existing chemotherapeutic drugs often kill healthy cells in the body of cancer patients which leads to numerous side effects.
IIT-Guwahati's statement said that it is believed that cancer deaths are as much due to the side effects of chemotherapy as the disease itself.
The results of this path-breaking research have been published in prestigious journals of The Royal Society of Chemistry including Chemical Communications and Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry.
The research team was led by Prof. Debasis Manna, Department of Chemistry, IIT-Guwahati. He along with his research scholars Subhasis Dey, Anjali Patel, and Biswa Mohan Prusty, among others co-authored the paper.
Prof. Siddhartha Sankar Ghosh, Plaboni Sen from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, and Prof. Arindam Bhattacharyya and Soumya Chatterjee from Calcutta University are collaborators in this research work.
"There has been worldwide research ongoing to overcome the drawbacks of secondary toxicity of chemotherapeutic drugs. Some strategies being explored include target-specific delivery of the drugs and on-demand delivery of appropriate drug doses to cancerous cells and tissues," an IIT-Guwahati statement said.
Prof. Debasis Manna said: "In the development of chemotherapy drugs, we had two aims -- the drug must be targeted at the cancer cells and released by an external trigger whenever required. The molecule developed by the research team has four special features."
The premier institute further said that the molecules developed by the researchers self-assemble as capsules to hold the drug, which then attaches only to cancer cells.
When infrared light is shone on it, the shell breaks and releases the encapsulated drug into the cancerous cell. The scientists rightly believe that their approach would allow the development of drug carriers for chemotherapy with enhanced efficacy and negligible side effects.
The researchers are now preparing to perform in vivo studies to take this finding closer to drug development.
'My name is the guarantee of security in the country', PM Modi says in Karnataka
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that his name is the guarantee of security in the country, adding it was his primary duty to protect the citizens of the nation.
9 held for gang rape of minors in Meghalaya
Nine persons were arrested by the police in connection with the rape of minor girls in the South West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya, officials said on Sunday.
Indian Coast Guard apprehends Pakistani boat with huge consignment of narcotics
In a major success, the Indian Coast Guard, following an overnight aerial-maritime joint operation with the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), on Sunday apprehended a Pakistan boat in the Arabian Sea, west of Gujarat's Porbandar, and seized a large haul of narcotics.
Decision to build Ram Mandir in Ayodhya should have been taken on next day of Independence, PM Modi says in K'taka
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that the decision to build Ram Mandir in Ayodhya should have been taken the very next day after the country achieved Independence in 1947.
Rahul slams BJD-BJP in Odisha rally, says both in collusion to benefit few corporates
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, stepping up the party’s campaign in Odisha on Sunday lashed out at the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government and the opposition BJP while accusing them of having ‘married’ each other for personal gains and befooling the public.
PM Modi has already scored a century in first two phases of LS polls: Amit Shah
Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Sunday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had already scored a century of seats in the first two phases of Lok Sabha polls.
Govt extends shutdown of schools in Tripura till May 1, heat wave alert extends
In view of the intense heat wave, the Tripura government has announced an extension of shutdown of all government aided schools and privately managed schools till May 1 next.
Despite having a woman CM, females in West Bengal most unsafe: JP Nadda
BJP national president J. P. Nadda on Sunday launched a blistering attack on the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal, saying that despite having a woman chief minister, females in the state are most unsafe.