Health Care : Current Reviews

Discovering multiple novel magic bullets towards combinatorial cure of malaria without the shadow of resistance

Euro Health Care and Fitness Summit

September 01-03, 2015 Valencia, Spain

Dinkar Sahal

International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, India

Keynote: Health Care: Current Reviews

Abstract:

The parasite that causes malaria is extremely ancient. The disease it causes has been tormenting mankind for a long time and the image of a child dying of malarial every minute continues to haunt us even today. Our handling of malaria for the last hundred years has taught us that the malaria parasite which relishes riding on the invertebrate mosquito vector to fly from one vertebrate victim to another vertebrate host is not easy to control. Its ancient heritage appears to have taught the parasite to emerge with heightened vengeance whenever we have challenged it with either ill equipped vaccines or misused drugs. Today�??s malarial parasite is well equipped to conquer almost all anti-malarial drugs through resistance and we have miles to go before we have credible vaccines against malaria. However, innovations in chromatography and high throughput screening platforms offer us immense possibilities of discovering new drugs and my talk will present a glimpse of how in collaboration with several co-scientists we are exploring both nature and chemically generated molecular diversity to identify novel pharmacophores against malaria. Although we are exploring those magic bullets that were famously enunciated by Paul Ehrlich, we are aware that such magic bullets work like magic only for the short duration when the pathogen has not yet developed resistance. Hence I shall show how consumption of ancillary molecules together with the magic bullet molecule may be important for (a) greater potency in synergy combinations, (b) improved pharmacokinetics and (c) for delaying the advent of drug resistance.

Biography :

Dinkar Sahal works in a laboratory which epitomizes a vibrant atmosphere for both design and discovery of novel antibiotic peptides and antimalarial drugs. The foundations for understanding the mechanisms of action and discovery of the origins of potency, synergy among antibiotics and broad spectrum of action of antibiotic peptides has been laid in his laboratory. Likewise discovery of novel drugs against drug resistant malaria is a major passion of his laboratory. He has published more than 70 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as a Reviewer and an Editorial Board Member of different journals.

Email: dinkar@icgeb.res.in