PGI Chandigarh Dr Shweta Sinha honoured for work in malaria drug discovery

Chandigarh: Dr Shweta Sinha of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGI Chandigarh) has been honoured with the Early Career Bursary Award in recognition of her work on synthetic chalcone molecules and her constant efforts to discover advanced drugs against malaria. 

She will be attending the 19th World Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (WCP2023) — organized by the British Pharmacological Society and International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacologists, in July in Glasgow, Scotland.

She is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Department of Medical Parasitology, PGI Chandigarh. She has been working in the area of new drug discovery for malaria for the last nine years. This subject is crucial because there is a pressing need to find new and improved antimalarials as the malaria parasite becomes resistant to artemisinin in South East Asia and now Africa. 

Her study has been approved for a poster presentation on the topic of drug discovery and development, and the results of this work will be useful in the search for new malaria treatments. 

Explaining her area of study, Dr Sinha informed The Indian Express, "We have used nanotechnology, specifically metallic nanoparticles, to increase the functionalization of chalcone molecules for enhanced antimalarial activity. This is a novel method that has been employed for new formulations to address drug-resistant malaria. The parasite usually evolves with time under drug pressure and becomes resistant. Drug-resistant malaria is also rising because of taking medicines for malaria prior to accurate diagnosis and use of inappropriate dosages mainly by inhabitants of endemic regions."

She also added that the initial formulation has been tested in the lab and has shown positive results. However, additional time will be needed to complete animal model testing to determine toxicity, and the results have not yet been released. The final lead of this study, which was supported by the ICMR with assistance from PGI departmental money, is now under process. Nanotechnology ensures target delivery and the use of nanoparticles is also being done in cancer therapy and for diagnostic purposes, reports the daily.

“These findings can be a base for further study and research not only in the field of malaria therapeutics or other parasitic infection but could be also useful in other diseases like cancers,” added Sinha.

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