Prof. Munna Sarkar

Research

Present projects: New functions for old drugs: Non Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs). NSAID group of drugs are the most common drugs used to combat pain and inflammation. Besides these principal functions, they also show several other functions viz. chemoprevention and chemosuppression against different cancers, protection against neurodegenerative diseases, UV photosensitizer and UV photoprotector. The mechanism behind these diverse functions of NSAIDs is poorly understood. The aim of our group is to elucidate the molecular mechanism behind the different functions of NSAIDs such that the old drugs can be used more effectively for their alternate functions and be used as templates for future drug designing. The molecular basis of these functions is probed using both biophysical and biochemical techniques including different spectroscopic, imaging and calorimetric techniques. The main areas that have already been studied or are being studied include: a) Interaction of NSAIDs with membrane mimetic systems/membranes: b) The effect of oxicam NSAIDs on mitochondrial membrane morphology and its consequences on downstream apoptotic signaling. c) Interaction of NSAIDs with lipid monolayer d) Complexes of NSAIDs with bioactive metals and their biological applications. We have discovered the following new functions of NSAIDs 1) The oxicam NSAIDs viz. piroxicam, meloxicam and tenoxicam cause membrane fusion. The detail mechanism is being studied. Effect of different physico-chemical parameters of both the participating drugs and the lipid bilayer of the membranes has already been deciphered. 2) Indomethacin, a traditional painkiller can probe the cluster structures in alcohol water mixtures. 3) Cu(II) complexes of some oxicam NSAIDs can directly bind to the DNA backbone. Post doctoral research: Structural studies of unusual DNA/RNA structures which included studying the effects of single deoxyribose sugar substitution in a ribose backbone and its implications in RNA-RNA interactions. Structural studies were also carried on oligonucleotides that model tertiary interactions in self splicing catalytic RNA molecules using optical and FTIR spectroscopy. In addition, ionic effect on the stability and conformation of complexes of a nucleic acid analogue, Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA) with DNA was studied in detail. Ph.D. work Spectroscopic studies of some biologically important molecules:  Flavones