Annual Meeting Abstract
G.P. Talwar
Abstract
Immunology is the science that deals with the processes that defend the Body against a variety of Assaults. We live amongst a variety of infections, but do not become victim to it unless our immune system is paralysed or non functional against a given infection. To combat such eventualities, Vaccines were invented, which seek to boost the immunity of the recipient against a given epidemic. I have had the privilege of developing a Vaccine against Leprosy, a disease caused by a Mycobacteria discovered initially in Norway. It renders the incumbent ugly and full of scars. Luckily only a few, about 1 to 2 percent of individuals in India are deficient in resisting this infection. We developed a Vaccine based on a cultivable non pathogenic mycobacteria, whose gene sequence is now known, and it has been named as Mycobacterium indicus pranii (MIP), earlier investigated under the code name Mw. After going through extensive Clinical trials, it received approval of the Drugs Controller General of India and also of USFDA. It has been passed on to a Company for availability to Public. Interestingly MIP or Mw has also therapeutic benefit in Tuberculosis, specially Category II Difficult to Treat Tuberculosis, in treatment of ugly ano-genital warts and several cancers. It is a potent invigorator of immune responses, and has also been included as adjuvant in our Birth Control Vaccine against hCG, currently under clinical trials.