National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali, has made some progress in developing new drugs for TB, malaria, leishmaniasis (Kala-azar), diabetes, cancer, and AIDS, but all the ongoing projects would take at least four years to yield some tangible results.

The premier institute has identified TB, malaria, kala-azar and diabetes as the thrust areas for new drug discovery programmes as even multinational companies have limited interest in developing multi-drug resistance in these segments. Besides the lack of suitable drugs for such conditions, the situation is expected to go serious in the future, prompting the Chemical Department to assist these projects. Most of the ongoing new drug discovery programmes began during the 10th Five Year Plan and would continue during the current Plan also. Out of the increased outlay of Rs 40 crore this financial year, Rs 25 crore would be spent for the ongoing schemes launched in the previous Plan.

However, all the projects were still in the preliminary stages. The programmes include invitro/alternative methods of screening diabetic complications, chiral drugs/bio-chemo enzymatic transformation, besides the identifying leads and molecules for developing new drugs for TB, malaria, diabetes, etc.

A broad structure-based bio-evaluation of several new chemical entities against M. tuberculosis led to the identification of ring-susbstituted quinolines and ring-substituted imidazoles as two new structural classes of anti-TB agents, sources said, on the progress of the programmes. Galactofuranose (Galf) moiety, an essential constituent of the mycobacterium cell wall, has been identified as a selective target in the bacterium. Synthesis of several aminoalditols and their derivatives for evaluation as inhibitors of galactosyl transferase, an enzyme responsible for the transfer of Galf moiety to the growing cell wall galactan chain in the mycobacterium, was also held.

A potential therapeutic strategy for diabetes and its complications in the form of co-encapsulated antioxidant nanoparticles (NanoCAPs) of ellagic acid and coenzyme Q10 has been worked out by NIPER so far. As part of the studies to develop anti-malaria drug also, some headway could be made so far. Synthesis of S-containing dihydroartemisinin derivatives for anti-malarial activity and two of the compounds have been shown to be more active artemisinin against P berghei in mice.

Discovery of anti-HIV compounds, both from plants as well as synthesis of analogs of naturally occurring anti-HIV compounds, has been started and are screened at National Centre for Cell Sciences, Pune, sources said.