RNA intererence (RNAi) is promising to be effective against cancer, HIV, JE, neuroregenerative disorders, rheumatoid arthritis and reducing cholesterol. Efforts are being made worldwide on RNAi to identify the mechanism which will help in making further modifications.
The research team at the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology led by Dr Utpal Bhadra, is working on socially relevant research areas that have potential to develop drugs against different viruses.
Dr Utpal Bhadra said, it can prove as a potential therapy where conventional medicine fails. The technique has opened new avenues for the prevention of diseases by switching off the genes that are responsible for the particular disease.
The CCMB team is working towards RNAi based drugs against AIDS and develop effective medicine for cancer. Pharma and Biotech companies should also increase their efforts in research to use RNAi in developing successful drugs, he added.
Indian scientists including Dr Utpal Bhadra and Manika Pal Bhadra (IICT) and Dr Jim Birchler of University of Missouri (US) had proved that gene silencing occurs in animal systems and has potential medical applications, which was published in the 'Cell' in 1997.
The Indian team narrowly missed the Nobel Prize for Medicine for 2006 as Andrew Z Fire and Craig C Mello won the Prize for finding the utility of RNAi in gene silencing, which was published in Nature in 1998.