Jonah Skulachev: for the eyes – in a year, "from old age" – in five
At the end of September, the Mitotech company, created by academician Vladimir Skulachev and his colleagues, began the second phase of clinical trials of a drug against eye diseases, in particular, glaucoma. V.Skulachev, Dean of the Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics of Moscow State University believes that both the second and third phases can be completed within a year. Confident in the successful completion of the tests, the developers are already preparing for the organization of production (to begin with, in their own laboratory, which has enough production capacity for the first years) and believe that in a little over a year the drug may appear in pharmacies.
An innovative drug that counteracts age-related diseases and aging-related changes in the human body may appear in Russian pharmacies within five years.
Like eye drops, a potential cure for old age has been developed on the basis of the mitochondrial antioxidant SkQ1 discovered by Skulachev. This substance is able to accumulate in the energy centers of cells – mitochondria and neutralize the active forms of oxygen compounds that destroy tissues and are responsible for many types of age-related changes.
Other known antioxidants cannot accumulate in the mitochondria, and therefore require large doses and have side effects for the therapeutic effect. Numerous animal experiments have shown that SkQ1 increases life expectancy, is effective in the prevention and treatment of age-related diseases, such as some cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis, and some forms of cancer. However, this development may take more time.
According to Skulachev, "one of the problems is to get a stable substance that will be convenient to use as a medicine. Pharmacologists require that the drug be stable for a year – this is a problem, because the substance is quite active. But we have practically already solved this problem, I think we will patent this work in the near future."
In addition, clinical trials of a new systemic drug will take much longer. "We will collect statistics on long–term effects, and if there are no side effects, then, I think, in a few years this substance will be sold as a remedy for chronic senile diseases and for old age in general," the academician said.
Skulachev said that recently they managed to find out that drugs based on its antioxidants are able to prevent the development of sudden death syndrome, which can occur during recovery.
"A terrible phenomenon – the crisis has passed, and then a person suddenly dies. In a number of cases, this substance saves. The second goal of the drug is chronic senile diseases, some lymphomas – in animal experiments, the life expectancy with this type of cancer increased by a third. In addition, it is arthritis, type II diabetes," the scientist said.
According to him, in animal experiments, it was possible to obtain a number of indications of the effect of Skulachev ions on 27 signs of aging, from harmless – such as graying, baldness, to much more dangerous, for example, aging of the circulatory system. Speaking about the possible entry of the drug into the market, he noted that two different scenarios are possible – work in Russia or the connection of large Western pharmaceutical companies at some stage.
At the end of February, the state corporation "Rusnano" announced that it would invest 710 million rubles in the production of innovative medicines against age-related diseases based on "Skulachev ions". The total budget of the project was supposed to be up to 1.8 billion rubles. The project's revenues by 2016 are expected to amount to 8.439 billion rubles due to the organization of production in the Russian Federation and licensing of technology to foreign manufacturers.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on open source materials
02.11.2010