The two leading research centres in Bangalore, the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and the R & D Center at Hikal Limited have teamed up for new drug development for central nervous system (CNS). The collaborative programme for basic research study on the neuro-chemical changes during depression and anxiety disorders in rodents is expected to lay the foundation for drug design development in neuropsychiatry.

The year old collaborative research programme in CNS is a first-of-its-kind initiative in India in terms of extending basic research findings into the clinical applications domain, Dr Sumantra Chatterji, scientist, NCBS and visiting faculty at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA told Pharmabiz.com.

The research focuses on the effects of chronic stress and its impairment of Hippocampus, ( part of the temporal lobe in the brain that deals with memory and learning). Dr Chatterji has proved that with stress, the hippocampus neurons shrink, which in turn leads to memory problems. But in the same brain with similar stress levels, the Amygdala neuron (an almond-shaped neuro structure) enlarges and leads to enhanced anxiety.

This discovery by the NCBS scientist has been acknowledged by the Dana Foundation in the USA, a private entity that promotes public awareness about brain research and funding for such efforts globally. This work has also been described recently in a Special Brain Issue of Scientific American.