ANNUAL REPORT - Department of Biotechnology

Zinc as an immunomodulator
Studies on zinc as an immunomodulator in the
treatment of possible serious bacterial infection in
infants of more than 7 days up to 4 month of age are
being carried out at AIIMS, New Delhi. Since it is a
double blind randomized controlled trial results of the
outcomes by groups are not available at this stage till
the code is broken at the end of the study. In this
study, the treatment failure rate is 15.7% which is
lower than the treatment failure rate of 25% used for
calculating the trial size. Eighteen infants died during
the study and the predominant cause was septic
shock. The overall case fatality rate of 4.5% has been
consistent over the last one and half years of
enrollment which is usual this kind of clinical settings
and also reflects the better case management for
enrolled infants in the study. Three hundred and
eleven infants (about 78.5%) achieved overall
recovery without change in initial antimicrobial
therapy. Forty three infants were discharged after
they had achieved clinical recovery but had not
gained 10g/day for two consecutive days. An overall
6.5% rate of loss to follow up, is much lower than
observed in the initial 6 months of enrollment, which
reflects the good co-ordination of the research team.
The isolation rates of pathogens in blood culture
were 17.4% and out of these 43% were due to
Staphylococcus (aureus, coagulase negative aureus
and methicillin resistant aureus). DSMB was
constituted before the enrollment of patients was
started. The adverse event forms and the death
summary of the infants are being constantly
reviewed by the DSMBs as per the stipulated
procedures.
New Initiatives:
DBT-ICMR Collaborative Effort on HIV/AIDS and
Microbicides
The Department of Biotechnology and Indian
Council of Medical Research jointly made a
programme announcement inviting proposals/
concept papers from investigator driven research
initiatives with interactive collaborating efforts across
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institutions and disciplines in the areas of HIV/AIDS
and microbicides. The emphasis is to address major
scientific challenges, which require a team approach.
The idea is to augment the advanced scientific
research and development through the
implementation of shared scientific strategic plan,
mobilization of adequate financial resources and
greater collaboration among the HIV/AIDS
researchers in the country. The strategic areas
identified include understanding the pathogenesis of
HIV/AIDS, designing novel vaccines and
microbicides concepts, curtail HIV replication etc. In
response, 133 Letters on Intent (LOIs) were received
from various research institutions, universities,
private companies and NGOs. The LOIs were
considered by an Expert Committee and 14 projects
have been implemented.
Chikungunya Virus Research Programme
The Department invited pre proposals in order to
conduct focused research related to Chikungunya
Virus keeping in view of the resurgence of
Chikungunya virus infection in India and other
countries around the Indian Ocean. The aim is to
initiate a broad and comprehensive research
programme related to the virus and disease aspects
primarily based on team effort in the areas of
structural biology and molecular mechanism of viral
replication, rapid methods of virus detection
(serologic and molecular tools), viral tropism and host
factors & animal reservoirs, viral diversity and
molecular epidemiology, immune correlates of
infection or protection (establishment of links with
access to clinical material), viral pathogenesis,
development of experimental animal model systems,
designing of new antivirals based on the molecular
structure of the virus, development of novel vaccine
platforms and immunogens, novel vector control
strategies. A total of 20 pre-proposals were received
and out of which 11 have been selected to develop as
full proposals after screening by an Expert
Committee. The full proposals will be examined
further by an Expert Committee and implemented as
per the recommendations.
Research and Development