New Delhi, April 2: Scientists have established links between human genomics and three physiological states defined in ayurveda, India's ancient system of medicine, but stirred concerns that their research might be misrepresented by some to make unsubstantiated claims.

Research groups in Bangalore, Hyderabad and New Delhi have through independent studies identified what they say are sets of genomic markers for the three states ayurveda uses to classify people into different physiological constitutions: vata, pitta, and kapha.

According to the principles of ayurveda, every person has an underlying physiological makeup that corresponds to a combination of these states - with different strengths assigned to each.

The genomic studies suggest that people assigned the states of vata, pitta or kapha through traditional methods of classification have subtle differences in their genetic make-up that could influence their predisposition to various diseases and response to factors ranging from climate to diet.

"These studies are intended to establish cross-talk between Ayurveda and genomics," said Mitali Mukherji, a scientist at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi, who had published the first research paper connecting this central concept of ayurveda with genetic makeup in 2008.

Ayurvedic practitioners use medical history, body structure, sleep patterns, likes and dislikes relating to diet and environmental factors such as hot and cold weather, even the manners of speech and movements of people to classify them as vata, pitta, or kapha.

"We use this system of classification as windows into a person's internal biology," said Bhavana Prasher, an MD in ayurveda, who has been collaborating with Mukherji over the past eight years adding evidence from genomics that people have an underlying baseline constitution.

The IGIB team has found that people classified as vata, pita, or kapha have differences in several genes that might influence, among other processes, susceptibility to bleeding, clot-formation, obesity, heart attacks and the capacity for tolerating low-oxygen conditions.

Mukherji, Prasher and a US-based collaborating biologist Greg Gibson at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, have in a research review published this week in the Journal of Genetics, outlined emerging connections between Ayurveda and genomics, discussing the results of nearly a decade of investigations.

The scientists are hoping such studies will help unravel the body's multiple biological pathways that can determine the risk and the course of various illnesses.

Ayurvedic practitioners have often argued that modern medicine is primarily aimed at managing the symptoms of illnesses, while ayurveda assigns importance to the underlying baseline constitution of each individual. "Understanding how many biological networks can influence health and disease is an emerging goal in modern biology," Mukherji said.

But some scientists are worried that such research could be misrepresented by people who have a poor understanding of the rigors of scientific research but a high enthusiasm to portray the achievements of ancient Indian science.

The Union minister for ayurveda and yoga, Sripad Naik, had last week, for instance, claimed that yoga could provide a cure for cancer within a year. Some proponents of traditional medicine have portrayed ayurvedic remedies, including cow urine, as wonder cures to heal an array of ailments, from asthma to cataract to cancers.

"This is a serious danger," said Subhash Lakhotia, professor of cytogenetics at the Banaras Hindu University, who has been tracking studies trying to connect ayurveda and modern biology. "What we need is dispassionate research to explore the underlying biological mechanisms that might help explain principles mentioned in ayurvedic texts - unsubstantiated claims of wonder cures are damaging to science, mislead the public, and help only quacks," he said.

An independent study led by scientists at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, published last October in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, had also shown that a set of 52 genome variations called single nucleotide polymorphisms can be used to classify people as vata, pitta or kapha.

"There are well-established ways to pursue scientific investigations of the concepts of ayurveda," said Marthanda Valiathan, a cardiac surgeon and national research professor at the Manipal University and a coauthor of the CCMB study, conducted jointly with several institutions, including the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

That study found that a gene named PGM1 which plays a role in metabolism is linked to the state of pitta defined by Ayurveda. Valiathan said the PGM1 connection has bolstered evidence for the idea that the Ayurvedic classification of vata, pitta, and kapha has a genetic basis.