New Delhi: If research papers of the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee researchers are to be believed, the country would soon get a vaccine to treat the deadly chikungunya, an infectious viral disease that gets transmitted to humans by mosquitoes infected with the virus.
According to Shailly Tomar, the associate professor (Department of Biotechnology) at the premier institute, her team of researchers have discovered the anti-viral potential of the drug piperazine and determined the mechanism to combat life-taking disease chikungunya.
"Our research paper talks about the potential of piperazine as pharmacotherapeutic agents and how binding these molecules to hydrophobic pocket of the capsid protein, present in the chikungunya virus, offers a new perspective for curative intervention which would restrict the spread of the virus," Tomar told Millennium Post.
"Chikungunya is becoming a major public health concern with many people being affected by it year on year and there is no vaccine or antiviral drug available in the market," Tomar said. She added, "Developing a new antiviral drug molecule can take over a decade and that is the reason why we are looking at repositioning existing, approved drugs and testing these to see if they might inhibit or kill pathogenic viruses."
"It's the outcome of our about four-year-long research work. Presently, we are testing the molecule on animals and hoping to take this to clinical trials soon. After getting satisfactory results, the existing drug would be modified to make it more effective to cure chikungunya," Tomar said, adding that their research has shown that piperazine was successful in curbing the spread and replication of the chikungunya virus in a lab setting.