BU team bags patent for nanoparticles for cancer drugs

Coimbatore: It is not a secret that senganthal (glory lily), the state flower of Tamil Nadu, has a lot of medicinal values. Now, two assistant professors with Bharathiar University have produced silver nanoparticles with its tuber (kilangu) for the preparation of cancer drugs. And they have bagged a patent for the same. “It (senganthal tuber) has an important alkaloid known as colchicine, which has anti-cancer properties. The main function of colchicine is that it prevents multiplication of cells,” said K M Saradhadevi, assistant professor, department of biochemistry. According to her, the colchicine extracted from the tuber of senganthal was mixed with silver nitrate. “We used silver nitrate because it acts as a vehicle for nano-formulation. After certain modifications and addition of chemicals, silver nanoparticles were produced. These nanoparticles possess targeted drug delivery properties to the microenvironment of cancer cells, enabling controlled and targeted drug release.” While senganthal is a poisonous plant, it has offered some of the best medicines for ayurveda treatments.Earlier, people were using the juice extract of senganthal to treat snake bites. It was used for abortions as well. If taken excessively, it has the potential to kill a human being, the assistant professor said. If consumed directly, she said, it would kill normal cells and be ineffective in the fight against cancer cells. “The silver nanoparticles that we produced are uniform-sized and small. They can easily stimulate natural killer cells in the human body and kill cancer cells,” Saradhadevi said. According to her, the invention could be utilized whenever there is a need for silver nanoparticles in the biomedical field, offering versatile applications in antimicrobial coatings, drug delivery systems, diagnostic tools, wound healing, cancer therapies, biosensors, bone tissue engineering and immunomodulation due to their unique properties. For their invention, Saradhadevi and the coinventor - P Gurusaravanan, assistant professor, department of botany - were granted the patent right on July 31.T Parimelazhagan, director, intellectual property rights (IPR) cell, Bharathiar University, said they had acquired 16 patents since the inception of the ICR cell in 2016. “We have been conducting awareness programmes and workshops for the faculty members and students to persuade them to convert their research innovations into viable and performing products.”