Dr. P. Rammanohar, PI (India) and Dr. Ananthram Sharma Co-I (India) visited the University of Milan to participate in the concluding meetings of the Indo Italian Researcher Exchange Program to develop Integrated Treatment Protocol for Management of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
Dr. P. Ram Manohar and Dr. Ananthram Sharma met with Dr. Antonella Delle Fave (Professor at Faculty of Medicine, University of Milan and principal investigator of the project from the Italian side), as well as Prof. Nereo Bresolin (Professor and Neurologist at University of Milan), who are the investigators from the Italian side in the bilateral project. They also met with Dr. Marta Bassi (Faculty of University of Milan and Project Member). In addition, they interacted with Marco Bernasconi (FLANAT Research, Italia) and discussed the formulation of herbal extracts based on classical Ayurvedic formulations administered to DMD children in India. Further, they interacted with Carmen Tosto (Ayurvedic Point, Milan) to learn about experiences in administering massages for children affected by DMD in Italy.
On November 11, 2019, there was a meeting of representatives of University of Milan and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, in which the members of the researcher exchange program from both Universities: Prof. Antonella Delle Fave, Prof. Nereo Bresolin, Dr. Rammanohar and Dr. Ananthram Sharma, participated and explored further opportunities of collaboration based on the work done so far.
On November 14, 2019, the Seminar on “Ayurveda for DMD: Pilot Findings, Challenges and Perspectives” was organized as the final meeting of the Italy-India Bilateral Project titled “Integrated Treatment Protocol for Management of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy”. The following experts participated in the Seminar as resource persons and/or made presentations: Prof. Antonella Delle Fave (Università degli Studi di Milano, Italian PI of the project), Dr. Rammanohar Puthiyedath (Amrita School of Ayurveda, Indian PI of the project), Prof. Nereo Bresolin (Università degli Studi di Milano, project team member), Prof. Giacomo Comi, Professor of Neurology, Università degli Studi di Milano), Dr. Marta Bassi (Università degli Studi di Milano, project team member), Dr. Anantharaman Sharma (Amrita School of Ayurveda, project team member), Dr. Maria Grazia D’Angelo (IRCCS “E.Medea – La Nostra Famiglia”), Mrs. Carmen Tosto (Ayurvedic Point), Dr. Marco Bernasconi (FlaNat Research Italia), Dr. Paolo Vintani (Expert in phytopharmacy and galenic formulations).
It was decided that the following papers would be drafted for publication by end of January: a conceptual paper on Ayurvedic and Allopathic Approaches to Diagnosis and Management of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy; a paper discussing the development of herbal extracts meeting European regulatory requirements based on classical Ayurvedic formulations used in India and a paper on Integrated Treatment Protocol for the Management of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Further, it was agreed that a project proposal would be prepared for conducting a larger study to validate the Integrated Treatment Protocol for Management of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
A specialty clinic will be established at Amrita School of Ayurveda to offer integrative care for children affected by DMD in collaboration with the Department of Pediatric Neurology, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi. It was also decided that steps to set up a registry of DMD children in Kerala will be initiated.
