IIT-Delhi hopes to create drug molecules to treat Alzheimer’s

NEW DELHI: Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi have designed and demonstrated a new strategy for developing potential drug molecules that can be used for treating various diseases like encephalitis and protein aggregation diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Presently, computer-aided rational drug discovery is utilised to find target molecules for a particular protein target and it takes a considerable amount of time, according to IIT.
“Drugs are mostly organic molecules that interact with molecules present in the human body. The molecules in the body are bigger in size and are typically called macromolecules. The researchers have come up with a chemical strategy based on the macromolecular mimicry. Molecules have shapes just like objects. Designing and synthesising molecules with diverse shapes is an art in itself. Mimicking the macromolecular interface by uniquely shaped small molecules is an approach adopted by the research group,” the institute said.
Professor V Haridas of IIT Delhi’s chemistry department collaborated with virologist professor Guruprasad Medigeshi of Translational Health Science and Technology Institute and biochemist professor Bishwajit Kundu of Kusuma School of Biological Sciences, IIT Delhi, for the research work.
“The tools of organic chemistry and biophysics were utilised to design molecules that target protein interface. We used this strategy to design drug molecules, which could be useful for treatment of Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV), the main cause for viral encephalitis in Southeast Asian countries and protein aggregation diseases such as Alzheimer’s. We have also patented the JEV inhibitor drug molecule,” the professor said.