Central Drug Research Institute

About: Central Drug Research Institute is a facility organization based out in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Leishmania donovani. The organization has 4357 authors who have published 7257 publications receiving 143871 citations. The organization is also known as: Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow & CDRI.

Anticancer and antiviral activities in indian medicinal plants: A review

Abstract: This paper reviews the screening studies carried out in India to identify Indian medicinal plants bearing anticancer and antiviral activities. The highlights of the active constituents isolated are described and, based on analysis of screening data, some correlation has been derived on the presence of anticancer and antiviral activities in the taxa belonging to different families.

Antileishmanial potential of a marine sponge, Haliclona exigua (Kirkpatrick) against experimental visceral leishmaniasis

Abstract: In this study, we are reporting antileishmanial activity of a marine sponge Haliclona exigua, belonging to phylum Porifera. The crude methanol extract and its three fractions were tested both in vitro and in vivo. The crude extract exerted almost complete inhibition of promastigotes at 50 μg/ml and 76.4 ± 6.5% inhibition of intracellular amastigotes at 100 μg/ml concentration with IC50 values of 18.6 μg/ml and 47.2 μg/ml, respectively. When administered to Leishmania donovani infected hamsters at a dose of 500 mg/kg × 5, p.o., it resulted in 72.2 ± 10.4% inhibition of intracellular amastigotes. At a lower dose (250 mg/kg), it exhibited 43.9 ± 5.1% inhibition. Among the fractions, highest antileishmanial activity both in vitro (>90%) and in vivo (60.9 ± 18.3%) was observed in n-butanol (soluble) fraction with IC50 values of 8.2 μg/ml and 31.2 μg/ml against promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes, respectively. Hexane fraction also showed comparatively good activity against both the stages of parasites in vitro but was moderately active in leishmania-infected hamsters. Chloroform fraction resulted in 45 ± 10.2% inhibition in vivo at a dose of 500 mg/kg × 5, p.o., whereas it was inactive in vitro. n-Butanol (insoluble) fraction was inactive both in vitro and in vivo. Araguspongin C, an alkaloid isolated from n-butanol (soluble) fraction exhibited moderate inhibition of promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes at 100 μg/ml but showed weak antileishmanial action in vivo. Our findings indicate that this marine sponge has the potential to provide new lead toward development of an effective antileishmanial agent and, hence, calls for more exhaustive studies for exploiting the vast world of marine resources to combat the scourge of several parasitic diseases.

Transgenic Leishmania donovani clinical isolates expressing green fluorescent protein constitutively for rapid and reliable ex vivo drug screening

Abstract: Objectives: Several Leishmania strains with episomal expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP) require constant drug pressure for its continuous expression and hence limit its use in ex vivo or in vivo systems. The aim of this study was to alleviate this problem by stably integrating the GFP gene into the parasite genome, so as to use these transfectants for ex vivo and in vivo drug screening. Methods: The GFP gene was integrated downstream of the 18S ribosomal promoter region of Leishmania donovani. After initial selection, GFP-expressing parasites—both sodium stibogluconate (SAG)-susceptible (2001) and -resistant (2039) isolates—were grown without adding G418. The infectivity of these transfectants to macrophages (J774.1) as well as to hamsters was checked. The ex vivo screening assay was standardized using standard antileishmanial drugs. Results: A constitutive and enhanced expression of GFP in promastigote and amastigote stages was achieved for 12 months without any need for drug pressure. These transfectants were highly infective to macrophage cell lines as well as to hamsters, as observed by fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry (FACS). GFP-tagged promastigotes as well as intracellular amastigotes were found to be highly susceptible to miltefosine, amphotericin B and pentamidine, in a concentration-dependent manner. SAG was inactive against the GFP-promastigotes, as well as SAG-resistant intracellular amastigotes, correlating well with earlier reports. Conclusions: The GFP-transfectants were found to be suitable for FACS-based ex vivo screening assays. They were also infective to hamsters up to day 60 post-infection.