NIMHANS which houses India's first and only Human Brain Tissue Repository (HBTR) for neurobiological studies have collaborated with three major research centres for brain tumour studies. They are Indian Institute of Science, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advance Scientific Research and National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, Haryana.

HBTR, a human brain bank, is a recognized national research facility managed by Department of Neruopathology, NIMHANS. The brains are collected from various patients suffering from neurological disorders, psychiatric illness, epilepsy, dementia and neuroinfections like HIV, Rabies, Herpes Encephalitis, Tuberculosis, Meningitis, etc. after post mortem and with the informed consent of the close relatives.

There is also a registry cataloging the Creuzfeldt Jacob Disease (CJD) which is human counterpart of Mad Cow Disease functioning in the Department of Neuropathology as a part of Human Brain Bank. This is the only centre offering this service in India which assists neurologists in establishing the diagnosis based on immunostaining of brain tissue, Dr. SK Shankar, professor and head, department of neuropathology, NIMHANS and head, HBTR told Pharmabiz.

The biochemists from NIMHANS found that decreased levels of Serotonin receptors in brain manifests as psychiatric illnesses and it may be possible to correct this by appropriate therapeutic regimen. Utilizing the human brains from the Brain Bank, Prof. Vijayalakshmi Ravindranath, former director, National Brain Research Centre has shown xenobiotic metabolizing capacity of the human brain directly without routing through the liver, as considered earlier.

Dr. Udaykumar Ranga from JNCASR have shown that a mutation in HIV TAT protein could be responsible for this altered biology of HIV-1 Subtype C virus.

There are also studies on oxidative stress in the evolution of Parkinson's diseases and other neurodegenerative disorders. Depletion of pigmented neurons in substantia nigra, a special anatomical area in human brain leads to Parkinson's disease. Studying the human brains from India and UK, Dr Uday Muthane, former faculty, Department of Neurology, NIMHANS reported that the pigmented neurons in the brains from India and Nigeria are essentially same as those found in the brains from UK, and yet the incidence of Parkinson's disease is less in India in contrast to West in old age. This possibly reflects differential interactions of nature and nurture in the evolution of human diseases and needs to be kept in mind in developing drugs.

Further, NIMHANS is planning to initiate studies in stem cell research to enhance the survival and reduce the suffering following neuro-trauma and neurodegenerative diseases. In collaboration with National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) some studies in animal models have begun.

This field is wide open and needs lot of basic research before translating this to 'bedside medicine'. However, this is an important area that needs to be promoted by an active collaboration of clinicians, basic scientists and pharmacological industry. Though there are many commercial Umbilical cord Stemcell Banks in India, the clinical application of it is still in infancy. "Various international scientific organizations like MRC, and NIH are keen to collaborate in research. In association with global partners and utilizing HBTR , the drug development endevours and stem cell application can be speeded up for the common good of humanity," informed Dr Shankar.