As reported to media Indian researchers had us proud by the new invention of drug for treatment of cancer, made from popular and much known Indian tree "Neem".
A team of around 22 researchers and PhD students led by Rathindranath Baral, senior scientific officer at CNCRI, who led the research with the help of others including Subhashsis Barik, Saptak Banerjee, Atanu Mallik, Kuntal Kanti Goswami, Soumyabrata Ray; Subrata Laskar of Burdwan University; Anamika Bose, researcher at the Bose Institute. This team led by Rathindranath Baral has invented a new drug for cancer from the Neem extract, which fortifies the immune system and helps fight cancer.
This team of scientists at the institute, who has been working on it for the last seven years, has developed the extract that could soon be turned into a drug once a clearance from the Drug Controller of India is received. This invention has been patented by the Chittaranjan National Cancer Research Institute (CNCRI) and from the extract the Final clinical trials could commence later.
Rathindranath Baral, senior scientific officer at CNCRI proudly said, "It seems years of hard work are finally going to yield result. The patent has been cleared and we are working on the application to be filed with the Drug Controller. Among other things, we shall have to prove that the extract has no toxic effects. We are confident of clearing the hurdle. Once that happens, clinical trials will follow and it shouldn't be difficult to convert the extract into a drug," .
He further added,"the neem extract : a glycoprotein was found to be strengthening the immune system and helping slow down the growth of cancerous tumours. It was successfully tried on animals by the research team. "We immunised mice with the glycoprotein and then introduced tumours in them. The growth rate of tumours was found to be much slower. While drugs kill cancer cells, glycoprotein strengthens the immune system by triggering interaction between the cells. It is completely non-toxic and has no side-effects. Our experiments have shown that the immunisation helps normalise the micro-environment around the tumour,".
More details were made available to media as that the neem extract will not work as a vaccine, though as a one-time vaccine, the extract will not be effective, for, cancerous growths could vary according to the place of occurrence. "Vaccines could be either prophylactic or therapeutic. This one would be effective as a therapeutic vaccine. It can be used only after cancer has struck. Since the glycoprotein strengthens immunity, it would be of great help to cancer patients who generally have weak immunity.
But as per Baral, the CNCRI is not yet sure about the subsequent steps yet. It might approach pharmacy firms for producing the drug. "It will have to be done commercially which is not a scientist's job. At the moment, we are eagerly looking forward to the Drug Controller's clearance,".
Oncologist Subir Ganguly said "the breakthrough was encouraging. But the drug needs to be cost-effective and it needs to be ensured that the drug is not toxic," .