primary-care-2016_scientifictracks-workshop

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Volume 4, Issue 3 (Suppl) Health Care: Current Reviews
ISSN: 2375-4273 HCCR, an open access journal
Page 50
Notes:
Primary Care Congress 2016
September 19-20, 2016
conferenceseries.com
September 19-20, 2016 Phoenix, USA
2nd Annual Congress and Medicare Expo on
Primary Care & General Pediatrics
Confluence of biological inspiration and chemical intuition in search of novel drugs against malaria
Dinkar Sahal
International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, India
The parasite that causes malaria has been tormenting mankind for a long time and the image of a child dying of malaria every
minute continues to haunt us even today. Our handling of malaria for the last hundred years has taught us that the malaria
parasite which relishes riding on the invertebrate mosquito vector to fly from one vertebrate victim to another vertebrate host is
not easy to control. Its ancient heritage appears to have taught the parasite to emerge with heightened vengeance whenever we have
challenged it with either ill equipped vaccines or misused drugs. Today’s malaria parasite is well equipped to conquer almost all
anti-malarial drugs through resistance and we have miles to go before we have credible vaccines against malaria. While it is true
that our best drugs against several diseases including Malaria have been gifts of nature, it is equally true that synthetic medicinal
chemistry has played a commendable role in chiseling and tweaking Nature’s pharmacophores to enhance potency, decrease toxicity
and making drugs affordable for the poorest of the poor. My talk will illustrate the ethos of my laboratory which is to study marine
organisms, medicinal plants, Cyanobacteria and endophytic fungi for new drugs against Malaria. Towards this mission, we are using
high through put fluorescence based micro-titer plate assays to culture the malaria parasite in human red blood cells and to examine
the effects of potential drugs on the growth of the parasite. On finding hits, we subject natural extracts to activity guided high
resolution chromatographic separation to isolate highly purified compounds against Malaria. Working in close association with
“chemical collaborators” we then determine the chemical structures of Nature’s pharmacophores and validate the same through
chemical synthesis. While the pursuit of discovering novel anti-malarial is continuing, we are currently engaged in fine tuning of a
natural antimalarial for optimum medicinal properties and drug ability.
Biography
Dinkar Sahal’s laboratory epitomizes a vibrant atmosphere for both design and discovery of novel antibiotic peptides and anti-malarial drugs. The foundations for
understanding the mechanisms of action and discovery of the origins of potency, synergy among antibiotics and broad spectrum of action of antibiotic peptides has
been laid in his laboratory. Likewise discovery of novel drugs against drug resistant malaria is a major passion of his laboratory. He has published more than 75
papers in reputed journals and has been serving as a Reviewer and an Editorial Board Member of different journals.
Dinkar Sahal, Health Care: Current Reviews 2016, 4:3(Suppl)