Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)
Udupi, May 27: Praveen Rao from here has been serving as a professor at University Of Waterloo School Of Pharmacy. Praveen is involved with a team of researchers involved with finding drugs for coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking to a Kannada newspaper from Canada on video, Praveen revealed that it has been found during the research that DPP 4 inhibitor drugs used to treat diabetes have the capacity to stop doubling process of COVID protein. Giving information on his research, Praveen said that over 5,000 medicines are currently available to treat different ailments, and an effort to find a medicine to heal coronavirus infection is in progress by making use of them. "Research is on at the laboratory of the said university, and we have tasted success in the early stage of the research," he stated.
He stated that research is being conducted on the effects of chemicals in the drugs on human bodies. After COVID infection got widespread in the world, research is being conducted continuously to find a cure for this disease, he explained. He said that the scientists in Germany have recently unearthed the structure of an important protein in COVID virus, which goes on doubling itself once it enters human body. If this multiplying affect can be frozen, the infection can be controlled. "We are conducting research on this aspects, and we are getting good results," Rao revealed.
"During the period research was conducted into medicines being administered for people with Type2 diabetes, we found that DPP4 inhibitors chemical structures have the ability to stop this multiplying affect. This is research in preliminary stage. More researches need to be performed. If we taste success, we will test them on animals. Thereafter, the drugs can possibly be tried on the humans," he narrated.
Dr Praveen Rao predicted that it takes ten to 5 years to introduce new drugs to the market and this is a costly affair. He agreed that there is a need for medicines urgently to control coronavirus. He reasoned that therefore, effort to find a medicine by using currently available drugs is going on.
Praveen Rao is from Udupi. He completed MPharma from Pharmacy College Manipal before successfully pursuing PhD degree in Canada. At present, he is a professor in the University Of Waterloo School Of Pharmacy.