CSIR Study Links Ayurveda & Modern Science
Statesman News Service

 
NEW DELHI, Sept. 22, 2008: In what is seen as a far-reaching study, the council of scientific and industrial research (CSIR) has found links between prakriti - a fundamental principle of Ayurveda - and modern genomics for the development of predictive and personalised medicine.
The study claims it's possible to identify groups within normal individuals of the populations, which could be predisposed to certain kind of diseases, and also might respond differently to drugs.

For the first time, it was demonstrated that normal individuals within the same ethnic population, clustered on the basis of clinical criteria described in Ayurveda, show variations in the basal levels of blood parameters used in routine for diagnostic purposes, as well as in basal levels of expression of genes. Such integration of the principles of Ayurveda with genomics - describes as Ayurgenomics - holds great potential and promise for future predictive and personalised medicine at an affordable cost, says the study, reported in the latest issue of Journal of Translational Medicine. For the study, normal individuals of the three most contrasting Prakriti types - Vata, Pitta and Kapha - were identified following clinical criteria described in Ayurveda in Indian population of Indo-European origin.
It was observed that these prakriti types exhibited differences at biochemical profiles such as liver function tests and lipid profiles, and hematological parameters like haemoglobin level.

Differential gene expression was found in significant number of housekeeping and disease-related genes. A significant variation in expression of genes related to metabolism, transport, immune response and regulation of blood coagulation was also observed.
More than 1,000 individuals were screened for the study, of which 120 of predominant prakriti were identified, and subsequently 96 unrelated ethnically matched healthy individuals with predominance of either Vata (39 individuals), Pitta (29) or Kapha (28) prakriti, belonging to an age group of 18-40 years with equal numbers of both genders, were recruited for further analysis.
Blood sampling was carried out from these individuals following all ethical guidelines. The individuals were all from North India and of Indo-European origin.