ROLE OF CHEMIST IN COVID-19
E-webinar national seminar organized under the theme “ROLE OF CHEMIST IN COVID-19 “was inaugurated by respected principal of veerashaiva college Dr. G. Rajashekar on 05.06.2020. While addressing the participants he emphasised about how the pandemic COVID 19, as the world faces a stressful time with the rise of the Coronavirus pandemic, the message for all of us is clear-stay at home to avoid the spread of the virus. Before concluding his inaugural speech, he wished for the success of the webinar.
Dr. D. Nagesh sastry, HOD, Dept of chemistry, Veerashaiva College, Ballari made presidential remarks on this occasion. He said, evidence from several countries is giving us a clearer picture about this virus, how it behaves, how to stop it and how to treat it. We know that COVID-19 spreads fast, and we know that it is deadly-10 times deadlier than the 2009 flu pandemic. We know that the virus can spread more easily in crowded environments like nursing homes. Chemists were developing a process for COVID‑19 a preventative vaccine or therapeutic prescription drug that would alleviate the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19).
The first technical keynote speech was delivered by Prof. K. M. Mahadevan, Registrar (Evaluation), University of Mysore, spoke on the topic “Synthesis and Development of new Quinoline hydride molecules for antiviral studies”. He said that, the role of a chemist in developing new antiviral drugs is a vital role in current research and it may helps for this covid-19. He motivated young talents for the research especially the synthesis of quinolines hydride molecules. Quinoline known for their antiviral activity and it is already in the market but this current drug is not so effective for COVID 19. On this occasion the hydride molecules may help for this pandemic disease.
In technical session I, Prof. K. S. Lokesh, Science Dean, Dept of chemistry, VSK University, Ballari, delivered his lecture on “Importance of antiviral drugs” The SARS-CoV-2 virus emerged in December 2019 and then spread rapidly worldwide, particularly to China, Japan, and South Korea. Scientists are endeavoring to find antivirals specific to the virus. Several drugs such as chloroquine, arbidol, remdesivir, and favipiravir are currently undergoing clinical studies to test their efficacy and safety in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China; some promising results have been achieved thus far.
Prof. H. S. Bhojya Naik, Chief Guest of this webinar was discussed the current role of chemist in drug discovery. He mentioned that, more than 130 drugs are under experimentation to treat Covid-19, some may have the potential to stop the virus while others may help calm overactive immune responses that damage organs, according to a tracker maintained by the Milken Institute, an independent economic think tank in the US, “Right now, there is only one effective approach… which is to repurpose already approved drugs for other diseases if they can be used for Covid-19. One example is remdesivir,” Ram Vishwakarma, director of the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, CSIR, Jammu, told PTI.
On this occasion, Dr. Susanta kumar Nayak from VNIT and Dr. Veera Reddy from IISER, Trivendrum were also participated as guest in webinar.
Sri Gonal Rajashekhar Goud, Chairman, Veerashaiva College, Ballari delivered concluding speech. He thank to all speakers, guests for gracing their important work and sharing with young talents during this occasion. He mentioned that, till to date, any Antibiotics do not work against viruses; they only work on bacterial infections. COVID-19 is caused by a virus, so antibiotics do not work. Antibiotics should not be used as a means of prevention or treatment of COVID-19. In hospitals physicians will sometimes use antibiotics to prevent or treat secondary bacterial infections which can be a complication of COVID-19 in severely ill patients. They should only be used as directed by a physician to treat a bacterial infection. In this regard….The chemistry community is making their contribution to the global fight against coronavirus by investigation of new antiviral drugs.
Dr. T. R. Ravikumar Naik, Organizing secretary (RCC-2020) mentioned that, Chemists are helping to keep the lights on-literally. Of course, research and development has a critical role to play too for the investigation of new antiviral drugs. He presented vote of thank for all the speakers, guests and participants on behalf veerashaiva college, Dept of P. G. Studies in chemistry and Dept of Chemistry for this meaningful webinar.