IICT makes headway in cancer treatment

Three synthetic molecules developed by IICT scientists show potential in treatment of breast and lung cancers and have been licensed to a company in the United States

July 05, 2013 02:43 pm | Updated 02:44 pm IST - HYDERABAD

Nation's pride: (From Right) Director,CSIR-IICB,Kolkata,Prof.Sidhartha Roy, Incharge-Director,IICT,Dr.Ahmed Kamal,and other scientists at the Dr.G.S.Sidhu Science Lecture organised in Hyderabad on Thursday. Photo: G. Ramakrishna

Nation's pride: (From Right) Director,CSIR-IICB,Kolkata,Prof.Sidhartha Roy, Incharge-Director,IICT,Dr.Ahmed Kamal,and other scientists at the Dr.G.S.Sidhu Science Lecture organised in Hyderabad on Thursday. Photo: G. Ramakrishna

Three synthetic molecules designed and developed by scientists of CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology have shown good leads for treatment of breast and lung cancers and have been licensed to a company in the United States.

Interacting with media persons after the 23rd Dr.G.S. Sidhu Science Lecture was delivered at IICT by Prof. Siddhartha Roy, Director, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata here on Thursday, Dr.Ahmed Kamal, in-charge director of IICT, said that in all five molecules designed and developed by IICT were granted U.S. patents. The molecules were later licensed to the U.S.company. Of them, three molecules have shown to be potential chemotherapeutics for cancer treatment in the pre-clinical studies conducted by the company.

He said that clinical studies were expected to be taken up now. He said the design of the molecules was based on naturally-occurring microbial scaffolds. Earlier, the efficacy of the molecules was validated in biological studies carried out by the National Cancer Institute in the United States.

Dr. Ahmed said IICT was also closely working with King’s College, London, in the field of nano medicine and looking at novel delivery aspect.

Dr. Roy, who gave the talk on “Regulating gene expression by designed synthetic molecules”, said that transcription factors play a key role in gene expression. He said that a synthetic peptide developed at IICB has shown to be effective in inhibiting growth of cells relating to skin cancer in animal studies. The scientists also did not find any significant toxicity in animal models. It was being taken up for further studies under a collaborative project taken up with Mayo Clinic, USA.

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