By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad have made a breakthrough towards making the treatment of the dreaded disease visceral leishmaniasis, also known as ‘kala-azar’, more effective and affordable. Kala-azar is caused by a parasite that is spread through the bite of an insect called phlebotomine sandfly. Amphotericin B(AmB) is the choice of the drug when it comes to treating a patient with kala-azar. However, AmB is presently administered through injections, which often results in an uncontrolled release of the drug into the patient’s bloodstream. The researchers are tackling this problem by producing AmB in tablet form which, when consumed, releases the drug in a controlled manner over a span of 10 days, making it more effective, cheaper and safer. This was achieved by developing a tablet using nanofibers made out of gelatine, which is loaded with the drug. The research was led by Saptarshi Majumdar and Chandra Shekhar Sharma of the CARBON Laboratory in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Dr Sharma said, “Nanofibres — a hundred thousand times thinner than human hair — are increasingly being considered as a medium for controlled release of drug molecules.” However, developing a tablet from gelatine nanofibers is not an easy task. Dr Sharma said, “While gelatine nanofibres could be easily produced by electrospinning, their poor structural consistency in aqueous conditions required them to be crosslinked”. So the team found a way to crosslink the fibres and the nanofibre mats thus obtained were finally compressed into tablets.

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