Indian HIV Experts seeking additional resources for research

[Guest guest]

HIV EXPERTS WANT RESOURCES

February 02, 2010 . It is believed that around 2.3 million people in India are

living with HIV. Of these, an estimated 39 per cent are females and 3.5 per cent

are children. In this scenario, urgent need for HIV-AIDS vaccine becomes even

more pertinent.

However, the efforts to develop a vaccine to cure HIV-AIDS can only bear better

and more fruits with the availability of more scientific research and human

clinical trials along with more manpower and funds for research in vaccine

development, experts said in an international seminar on AIDS vaccine research.

" There is a need for increasing the availability of more scientific research and

human clinical trials in order to develop and validate a human AIDS vaccine. We

need more manpower in the area of research in this particular field, " Director,

National AIDS Research Institute (NARI), R S Paranjape said.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of international seminar on `New

Trends in AIDS Vaccine Development and Treatment,' organised by the School of

Biotechnology, I2IT, Pune. " Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) are being used for

testing the effectiveness of the vaccines and in the diagnostics.

A cytotoxic T cell belongs to a sub-group of T lymphocytes (a type of white

blood cell) that are capable of inducing the death of infected somatic or tumour

cells; they kill cells that are infected with viruses (or other pathogens), or

are otherwise damaged or dysfunctional, " Paranjape said in a release by School

of Biotechnology, I2IT.

The key session was delivered by Dr Sanjay Phogat, Principal Scientist and

Project Director, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, New York, USA. The

other guests present on the occasion included CEO, Gennova Biopharmaceuticals,

Pune Sanjay Singh.

" Apart from manpower, there is a need of more funding and focused research in

order to develop vaccines. We have taken some initiatives in association with

the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, " Sanjay Singh emphasised.

Senior Scientist, National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune, Debashis Mitra,

spoke about the role of cytokines in modulation of immune response to HIV-1

antigens and how this mechanism has the potential in developing an anti-HIV

vaccine or treatment. Cytokine-based research is targeted towards treating

several diseases including cancer affecting immune system.

Senior Scientist, National AIDS Research Institute (NARI), Pune, Jayanta

Bhattacharya, spoke about the Dynamics of neutralisation properties of HIV-1

India subtype C and emphasised on the genetic basis of HIV1 envelop proteins

which is important for virus neutralisation.

Professor and Head, School of Biotechnology Sheo Mohan Singh pointed out that it

takes about 15-20 years of research to develop a research-based drug and

hundreds of scientists from all over the world contribute to it by doing the

complementary pieces of research.

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