IIT Bhubaneswar working on Rational Design and Development of Neutralizing Peptide Antibody for Human Complement Fragment 5a (hC5a)

COVID-19 is a disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2, which triggers aggressive inflammation response in the host body. Virus entry into the host cell triggers unregulated complement activation, resulting the onset of “cytokine storm”, which plays a significant role in acute lung injury. It is worth mentioning that respiratory distress is the prime reason behind the corona virus related mortality. Controlling the proinflammatory response of hC5a may work as an alternative to prevent acute lung injury triggered by the exposure to SARS coronavirus.

The research group of Dr. S. Rana (Chemical Biology Laboratory), School of Basic Sciences, IIT Bhubaneswar is on a mission to design and develop peptide based synthetic antibody for neutralizing the harmful proinflammatory function of hC5a.

The computational biology aspect of the project will be conducted through HPC facility of IIT Delhi, which has recently approved the project through a special call for funding the COVID-19 related research.