Works of Late Professor Raj Shankar
Late Professor Raj Shankar
Late Dr. Raj Shankar (1947-2000), Late Professor, Department Of
Biochemistry, Institute Of Medical Sciences, Varanasi , Uttar
Pradesh-221005, INDIA
His main fields of specialization were Neurobiochemistry and
Clinical Biochemistry.His contributions on neurochemistry are
well recognized and he had been invited to deliver lectures in
various prestigious conferences.Professor Raj Shankar's
contribution is in developmental neurobiology with special
reference to undernutrition during brain growth spurt period.His
work had clearly established that undernutrition during brain
development causes some irreversible changes.In 1991,work
carried out in Texas and Yale with Magnetic Resonance Imaging by
other workers confirmed some of the conclusions of Prof
Shankar's work.Work done during last few years on developing
brain show that signal transduction mechanisms are affected due
to nutritional stress during brain development.Professor
Shankar's other work involved biochemical aspects of mode of
action of drugs on C.N.S.Apart from work on reserpine done
earlier and published in NATURE and BIOCHEMICAL PHARMACOLOGY,in
1987 he established that the barbiturate pentobarbitone affects
protein phosphorylation in brain.This work is significant from
the point of view of views on signal transduction.His work also
concerned with mode of action of drugs like haloperidol and
trifluoperazine.Professor Shankar's work in clinical
biochemistry was mainly concerned with lipoprotein
metabolism.Professor Shankar has over 50 publications in
international and national Journals of repute.
The brief history of Research work done by him & his
contributions to Neuro-Chemistry and Bio-Chemistry :
He worked for one year (1966-67) in the Vallabhbhai Patel Chest
Institute,University Of Delhi,India on the Lipid Metabolism In
Mycobacteria.In 1967,he went to Kinsmen Laboratory of
Neurological Research,University Of British Columbia,Canada to
work under Prof.J.H. Quastel, F.R.S. for PhD degree in
Biochemistry.There he worked On "Cerebral Metabolism during
Anoxia and effect of some Neurotropic Drugs".This work clearly
showed that tetrodotoxin strongly stimulates anaerobic
glycolysis and these findings led to the conclusion that at the
onset of anoxia,and in the absence of tetrodotoxin action
potentials are generated. The above work has been cited in
various publications by a number of workers.In 1971,he returned
from abroad and joined Department Of Biochemistry ,Institute Of
Medical Sciences,Banaras Hindu University,Varanasi,India.There
he initiated work on undernutrition and brain development.His
early work was concerned with developing a suitable model for
study of effect of undernutrition on cerebral metabolism during
the brain growth spurt period.Ultimately the method of
restriction feeding time of the suckling rats was adopted and he
found that transport property of isolated cerebral tissue is
altered in developing rats .This was perhaps first demonstration
of the fact that undernourishment during brain growth spurt
period causes changes in the membrane organization resulting in
altered transport properties.It was also found that a key
membrane enzyme Na+K+ ATPase show decreased activity in addition
to changes in pattern of oubain inhibition which was reversible
on adequate rehabilation.This work along with some other
findings of him show that these changes are presumably due to
the free radical induced damage to developing brain.
Studies on incorporation of C14-acetate into brain lipids of
undernourished rats in vivo carried out by him showed that
inspite of lipid deicit, 14C-acetate incorporation is slightly
higher in experimental animals.This finding ultimately led to
the observation that operation of pentose phosphate cycle is
altered in the brains of undernourished animals.Gultathione and
ascorbic acid was also studied in undernourished brain. From
1980-84 he worked on a project "Drug Action ,brain development
and behavioral changes in the mammalian system "financed by
CSIR(India).This work mainly led to the finding that action of
some CNS acting drugs are potentiated in undernourished
animals.They also observed that the drug reserpine is a strong
inhibitor of lipid peroxidation and protein phosphorylation in
brain.This project was mainly concerned with interaction between
drug action,monoamines and membrane phenomenon which could later
be extra polated to behaviour.Since various gangliosides are
involved in binding of cerebral amines the contents of different
species of gangliosides and neuraminidase activity was
established.He established that the drug reerpine effects the
cationiv content of rat brain and proposed that changes in
cationic content may be playing a part in release of monoamines
at the synapse.It was further shown that transport property of
isolated cerebral tissue is altered in chronic reserpinized
animals which further pointed out the membrane action of
reserpine.In 1980 he established that there is a relationship
between high density lipoproteins and premature atherosclerosis
in patients with renal failure.The work on lipoproteins was also
carried out with patients suffering from anxiety neurosis.He was
one of the coinvestigators in an international study on protein
energy requirements in indivisuals of this country and this work
was supported by the United Nations University.In addition he
was involved in a number of collaborative studies with various
groups in the institute.The studies include Biochemical and
Immunological studies in chylurya,placental oxidative enzymes in
pregnancy anemia,Lecithin-Sphingomyelin ratio in fetal lung
maturity etc.Till August 2000 he was involved in study of
protein phosphorylation in brain.He had shown that protein
phosphorylation is adversely on rehabilation .Attempts were in
progress to characterize specific proteins by SDSPAGE and
radioautography.He had shown the effect of pentobarbitone on
cerebral protein phosphorylation which is not due to to its
action on electron transport chain.Work was also in progress in
his laboratory till August 2000 to study effect of a number of
CNS drugs on protein phosphorylation in brain and to examine if
specific proteins are effected.This would have helped to
establish exact role of cerebral phosphoproteins in
neurotransmission.Mechanism of action of some antiepileptic
drugs on brain metabolism was also in progress.In 1999 he
conclusively established that in conditions like Alzeihmer's
disease there is phosphorylation related folding problem of
proteins.This is responsible for cognitive and other
defects.Similar situation exists under severe undernutrition
during brain growth spurt period and similar mechanism involving
protein phosphorylation may be involved here also. In 2000 along
with his student Kalyan Goswami,he showed that sites in proteins
damaged due to free radicals can be accurately determined by
carbonylation studies and may be developed as an accurate method
to denote relation between chronological age and biological age
after free radical induced damage.(Kalyan Goswami,B.D. Bhatia
,Raj Shankar, 2000)
Sources http://users.vectorstar.net/~abhinav/raj/