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October 11, 2007
$6 million NIH grant to establish center to study complementary, alternative medicine
The raw materials of a new $6 million grant at the University of South Carolina? Try red grapes, ginseng and hemp.
Long obscure, alternative and complementary medicine have charged into mainstream research circles, and university faculty are at the forefront.
Husband-and-wife team Drs. Prakash and Mitzie Nagarkatti of the School of Medicine and Dr. Lorne Hofseth of the South Carolina College of Pharmacy have landed one of just three grants this year from the prestigious National Institutes of Health to study how plant compounds can treat autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The award was made October 11.
Funding will create a Center of Excellence for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research on Autoimmune and Inflammatory Disease. UCLA and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine are the only other centers funded in 2007. Previously funded centers are at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Oregon State and Temple universities, and the universities of Maryland, North Carolina and California-San Francisco.
"Having the University of South Carolina included in this group is a testament to our growing research reputation," says Dr. Harris Pastides, university vice president for research and health sciences.
Dr. Donald DiPette, dean of the School of Medicine echoes that praise. "This grant and the research that will be performed will substantially increase our national and international visibility and reputation."
Well-known autoimmune diseases include rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes and lupus. Autoimmune diseases result when the immune system attacks the body's own organs, tissues and cells, through a process know as inflammation.
Prakash Nagarkatti, the grant's principal investigator and associate dean for basic sciences at the School of Medicine, will study how resveratrol, a compound in the skin of red grapes, might help treat multiple sclerosis.
"We need to know what's effective and what products and treatments complement traditional medicine," he says. "The centers established by NIH are focused on the biological effects of specific compounds from plants and how they affect the treatment of specific diseases.
"One day, a compound in red grapes may be just what the doctor orders to treat multiple sclerosis. Colitis may be treated with American ginseng, and a compound from hemp oil could treat autoimmune hepatitis."
The Nagarkattis joined the School of Medicine faculty two years ago, moving from the Medical College of Virginia, where they established a national and international reputation for immunology research.
"Other university researchers had an interest in this field, and it seemed to be a good fit with the types of research that we were conducting," says Mitzi Nagarkatti, chair of the School of Medicine's department of pathology and microbiology. "This is an exciting and relatively new field of research, and it brings together researchers from a number of disciplines at the university."
The center will also include an Immunotoxicology Core led by Dr. Narendra Singh and Dr. Robert Price from the School of Medicine, who will study the toxicity of plant products on the immune system.
In addition, a large number of faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and technicians from the School of Medicine, S.C. College of Pharmacy, Arnold School of Public Health and the College of Arts and Sciences will participate in the studies.
Drs. Prakash Nagarkatti, front, and his wife, Mitzi Nagarkatti, in their School of Medicine laboratory.
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Drs. Nagarkatti (2:59)
