ANNUAL REPORT - Department of Biotechnology

Virus Research Centers or Networks
The Department invited pre-proposals towards
establishment of Virus Research Centers or
Networks in order to develop comprehensive
biomedical programme for virus research in India.
Under this programme, Centres of Excellence
capable of developing broad and comprehensive
research programmes for virus research has been
emphasized. This will primarily be investigator driven
team effort to address diverse aspects of virus
research ranging from basic structure, biology,
replication, antigenic and genetic diversity, methods
of detection, pathogenesis and vaccine
development. The priority research areas include
Respiratory viruses with emphasis on Avian
Influenza, Enteric viruses, Hepatitis 'C' & 'E',
Japanese Encephalitis, Dengue, Cytomegalovirus
and other emerging viruses such as Chikungunya. A
total of 46 pre proposals have been received.
Chronic Disease Biology
The department has provided impetus to Chronic
Diseases Biology (CDB) as the cases of cancer;
cardiothoracic disorders, diabetes, neurology and
joint diseases etc. have reported to be on the rise in
developing countries. An independent Task Force
has been constituted and areas such as joint
diseases, cancer immunotherapy, vascular biology,
stroke and reproductive biology identified for brain
storming/ interactive meetings. It is proposed to set
up a few Centers of Excellence in the area of CDB.
Cancer
The focus continues to be towards early diagnostic
and prognostic markers. While there are about 90
on-going investigator driven projects adopting
various intervention strategies i.e. new synthetic
compounds, study of novel signaling pathways and
their intervention strategies using novel proteins; cell
based therapy etc., there are well-defined network
projects that have shown good promise.
Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine Project: The
network programme on the development of vaccine
DBT Annual Report 2006-07
112
candidates for Human Papilloma Virus has several
components and progressed well during the year.
The whole approach is based on identification of
strains that could be uniquely responsible for
considerable number of cervix cancer ( CaCx ) cases
in Indian women. Scientists are making Virus Like
Particles (VLPs), Capsomere Like Particles (CLPs),
synthetic peptides and use these with or without
novel antigen presenting systems. Companies have
joined the development efforts under proper
agreements.
Six centers located in different parts of the country.
i.e. AIIMS, New Delhi; CMC, Vellore; KMIO,
Bangalore; ACTREC, Mumbai; RCC, Trivandrum
and CFI, Kolkata collected 125 samples each from
the confirmed cases of CaCx and genotyping done to
identify the presence of ulcerogenic and nonulcerogenic
HPV strains using standard protocols.
The genotyping of all 600 samples would be available
and sequencing of L1, E6, E7 protein done. The
results may provide distinct clue as to what strains
could be important for designing vaccine candidate in
Indian women so to give maximum protection against
oncogenic strains. HPV genotyping has been done in
collaboration with XCyton Diagnostics Ltd.,
Bangalore who have designed and developed a
“Papilloma chip” for testing all strains in one go. The
chip has been validated and a 100% concordance
found between the results of the collaborating
centers and that of the company.
Further on, L1, E6 and E7 proteins of HPV 16 are
being sequenced by Lab India Instruments Pvt. Ltd,
Gurgaon to check if there is any strain variability in
HPV 16.
VLPs of HPV 16 have been prepared with average
diameter ranging 35-50 nm. A dialogue between
ACTREC and Nicolas Piramal India Limited, Mumbai
(NPIL) was initiated towards co-development efforts
and a possible technology transfer of rHPV-16 L1
VLP preparation and purification. As a preliminary
feasibility study, ACTREC provided seed culture,
which was grown to 5L fermentor at NPIL and VLPs
purified. The protein yield (VLP) increased to >5 fold