Winner of the Galen Prize – about the fight against cancer
7 questions to Alexander Sobolev, Head of the Laboratory of the Institute of Gene Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Alyona Lesnyak, "Russian Reporter" No. 45-2013
Photo: O. Kiryushkin
For the first time, Russian scientists have received the prestigious international Galen Prize, which is considered an analogue of the Nobel Prize in the field of pharmacy. Biologists Alexander Sobolev, Andrey Rosenkrantz from the Institute of Gene Biology and Vladimir Lunin from the Gamalei Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology have developed a mechanism for targeted drug delivery to the cell nucleus, thanks to which it will be possible to cure various types of oncological diseases.
1. Western scientists have repeatedly announced their developments on the targeted delivery of drugs into cells. How is your method different from the others, why exactly were you given a bonus?Indeed, there are many similar developments.
But we have created not just a system that works with only one type of disease, but a whole platform that delivers drugs not just to the target cell, but also inside this cell - to a given part of it, where this medicine is most effective. Thanks to it, it is possible to treat different types and forms of diseases, in different tissues, using various medicines. That is, we have developed a whole group of delivery vehicles that work with a variety of goals.
2. Have you already tested your development? Yes, we have conducted and are conducting preclinical tests on laboratory mice with various types of oncology – this is brain, spinal cord, and bladder cancer.
And 80% of the animals were completely cured. The effectiveness of the drug increases not by several times, not by tens, but by thousands of times. We have not worked with non-oncological diseases yet: there are not enough hands for this and normal funding for these hands to appear.
3. What makes it possible to achieve such effectiveness in treatment?Previously developed systems recognized the cell as a target and could penetrate it.
We went further and created a nanomolecule that perceives not only the entire cell as a target, but also sees an intracellular target – a particularly sensitive place in the cell – and acts only on this site, without touching normal, non-cancerous cells. And thus does not cause any side effects.
4. How soon will your scientific discovery begin to be applied in practical medicine?If the circumstances are good and there is normal funding, then it will take two to three years to move to clinical trials.
These tests on humans, I hope, will be able to confirm that our development has the potential to become the basis for personalized medicine, when a person is treated taking into account all his individual characteristics.
5. Will the medical staff be able to work with such an innovation as personalized medicine, because this requires serious retraining?This is a problem, but it can be solved if you understand what its root is.
It seems to me that we have many difficulties in science because there is no competent infrastructure that ensures this very movement from the development of scientists to a method of treatment used in practice, a new drug or device. Yes, in order for doctors to handle new products, the staff needs to be trained, but in order to train, you need money, good funding. In Europe, America, such infrastructure is established. Private companies support science there. But they start investing money when they see the minimum amount of risks, that is, when a new drug, for example, has already passed the necessary preclinical tests. But after all, funds are also needed at the stage of these experiments, and here you can not do without the support of the state.
6. What tasks in the field of biomedicine and pharmacology could you call the most important now?Cancer, cardiovascular diseases…
Doctors have learned to cope with infectious diseases, human life expectancy is increasing. But new forms of diseases are still emerging, and challenges remain for scientists.
7. Will it ever be possible to defeat cancer?I am not a futurist, and this question concerns not only my scientific field.
Therefore, it would be too rash to make any predictions on this score.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru14.11.2013