CHANDIGARH: It may just become possible to fight the dreaded HIV
type 1 virus. And, a particular algae and herbal plant found in
northern India would be the tool. This has recently been proved
in a research of anti-HIV drug at National Institute of
Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali in Punjab.
The algae and herbal plant have chemicals with potent anti-viral
structure. Imitating these structures, a compound has been
synthesized to fight HIV type 1 virus. A patent has been filed
as this is the first such compound which has shown a protection
rate of 78.17% against the HIV virus (the standard percentage is
89.75). The project, which has been completed recently and
collaborated with National Centre for Cell Science, Pune
University, had been sponsored by the Department of
Biotechnology, Delhi. The main objective behind developing such
a compound was to introduce another set of compounds and their
family which are not yet resistant to the HIV virus. The
principal investigator of the project, Pro