07 March 2011
By Shashwat Gupta Ray
Pune, India
This innovation has got patent from National Biodiversity Authority, Government of India. "My team developed a herbal drug against HIV infection. It increases CD4 cells, responsible for regulating immunity of human being. It has also been found that this drug minimises the viral load of HIV infected persons. We have been awarded the patent recently," Department of Microbiology, Yashwantrao Mohite College, Bharati Vidyapeeth University Prof B B Ballal, told Sakal Times.
The research team involved scientists Prof Ballal and Prof Chandrani Kundu. They were assisted by MSc microbiology students Vishal Bhat, Yashpal Yadav, Sanika Veer, Smita Bayas, Nitya Sharma, Priya Mindhe and Dimpal Bhat.
"As compared to Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) administered to HIV+ patients, our drugs neither have side effects nor lead to drug resistance. Tests showed the CD4 count went up in many patients from as low 150 to 440. Patients were in a better position to fight symptomatic diseases like TB associated with HIV," he said.
These drugs are available at Central Medical Stores, Budhwar Peth, near Dutta Mandir.
"With the patent now available we can go in for mass production. The drugs will be able to compete with the conventional ART drugs. However, these drugs take three months to show results. I am now working towards reducing the reaction time to at least 24 hours," Ballal said.
The medicines take three months to show results because the herbs used contain large number of chemical compounds, of which only few are required. "The unrequired compounds mask the actual active agents, thus delay the impact," he said.
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