Gujarat recommends doc’s name for Nobel
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, Nov 14: Kidney transplants are no
doubt one of modern medicine’s greatest contributions to human
survival. Yet, like all scientific milestones, these too spin off their
own set of perils for a patient.Very often, the body rejects the new
kidney, and a patient is required to invest in a host of remedial
drugs: a problem that doctors and patients had simply reconciled to,
all these years.
Dr
H L Trivedi, director and professor, Institute of Kidney Diseases and
Research Centre, Ahmedabad, received many such patients, and knew
precisely what the situation meant, in a country where people could
barely afford the transplant itself.
But
for a thinking mind, no challenge is insurmountable. And Dr Trivedi
took it upon himself to find a solution to the vexation, and with his
team at the institute, set about to find a way that could do away with
an expensive regimen of drugs a patient is required to take to prevent
kidney rejection.The doctors introduced the donor’s bone marrow cells
in patients, andfound they created tolerance. A subsequent kidney
transplant will not be rejected by the body, they found.
The Gujarat Government has recommended Dr Trivedi’s name for the Nobel Prize for Medicine for this discovery.
Dr
Trivedi took cue from Nobel Prize-winning Swiss immunologist Professor
Zinkernagel, who concluded from experiments on animals that only a
small portion of the immune system, when exposed to virus, reacts and
eventually becomes tolerant.
“I
thought the principle can be applied to humans too,” he says.Though
the idea originated in 1995, the experiments began this September.
Using the breakthrough technique, 12 patients underwent kidney
transplantation. “The patients are on a very small level of drugs and
are doing so well,” he says.
Dr
Trivedi adds, “Though drugs block rejection of the transplanted
kidney, they make the patient vulnerable to virus infections and
cancers.” The post-transplant drugs cost Rs 4 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, he
says.
According to Dr Trivedi, the patients caneschew drugs after two months, saving a considerable sum by way of drug purchases.
“This will change the therapeutic way that transplants are carried out,” he says.
Health
and Family Welfare Minister Ashok Bhatt confirmed that Dr Trivedi’s
name has been recommended for the Nobel Prize. A detailed research
paper is underway, to be sent to reputed international scientific
journals.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
