DKICP faculty paper makes cover of ACS Infectious Diseases

Three current and former DKICP researchers are co-authors of a paper featured on the cover of the latest issue of the publication ACS Infectious Diseases. Their paper is titled “Pharmaceutically acceptable carboxylic acid-terminated polymers show activity and selectivity against HSV-1 and HSV-2 and synergy with antiviral drugs.”

DKICP assistant professor Abhijit Date is one of the authors, along with postdoctoral research associate Sudipta Mallick and former postdoctoral research associate Pratikkumar Patel.

“The goal of our research was to identify novel and cost-effective therapies for treating herpes, a virus for which there are currently limited treatment options,” explains Date. “These polymers are easily available and already being used effectively in tablet coatings. Our work proves they have the right structural features to deliver activity and selectivity against HSV-1 and HSV-2.”

The researchers’ work also demonstrates that polycarboxylates can be easily transformed into nanoparticles and, in that form, they show similar or enhanced activity against HSV. Used in in-vitro HSV therapy studies, these polycarboxylate nanoparticles also show synergies with existing antiviral drugs, he says.

Read a complete abstract of their article.