Biotechnology for Medicine (continued-2)
Despite great success in the creation of synthetic medicines, today interest in the plant and animal world as a source of biologically active substances is constantly increasing. Medicinal preparations of animal origin, along with herbal ones, have long been used in folk medicine, although they are inferior to herbal ones in terms of breadth of application. Optimization of the search for therapeutically promising compounds is connected both with the study of the mechanisms of animal protection from various infections, and with the analysis of the experience of folk healing. For many of these substances, the frontier of artisanal use has been crossed, and they are widely used biotechnological products. Others are only going through the stages of preclinical research, and, finally, the third group is formed by compounds whose unique properties have only been discovered and are at the stage of scientific research.
Compounds of animal origin or compositions with unique therapeutic properties have been identified among various representatives of the animal kingdom: arthropods, mollusks, various classes of vertebrates (amphibians, reptiles, mammals).
For example, from ancient times to the present, one of the most important sources of medicinal raw materials for traditional oriental medicine is maral and spotted deer. For this purpose, 13 organs and body parts of these animals are used, and, above all, antlers – young antlers of deer. Back in 1596, in the consolidated Chinese pharmacopoeia compiled by Li Shi-Zheng, it was noted that the power of antlers lies in the blood contained in them. Studies of the twentieth century have confirmed that antlers and the blood of marals contain a huge amount of biologically active substances that are necessary not only in the treatment of various diseases, but also as a preventive, tonic for healthy people. The centuries–old experience of oriental medicine claims that the blood of antler deer is an "elixir of longevity" and a magical "drug of nine transformations". Currently, it has been experimentally proven that extracts from antlers and blood contribute to prolonging life and delay aging. According to international experts A. Duart and D. Abdo (1994-1995), currently obtained medicines based on deer antlers are the most effective and safe adaptogens on the planet. Such drugs include Pantal, or Plasmaral, and Pantocrine.
Amazing results, important for solving the problem of longevity and aging, were obtained in studies of the river pearl oyster Margaritifera margaritifera. As you know, all salmon, salmon in most cases die after the first spawning. But some fish continue to live and winter in the river and then live for more than one year. It turned out that all these salmon specimens had pearl oyster larvae on their gills. Although the exact nature of the substances produced by the mollusk larvae has not yet been revealed, but one thing is obvious – it turns off the aging process, reducing the activity of the hypothalamus excited after spawning. Studies of the drug from this mollusk, conducted in three Russian scientific centers in Moscow and St. Petersburg, may help to detect compounds that have long been associated with the "elixir of longevity".
Some diseases of senile age are still invincible. These include Alzheimer's disease (senile dementia). Currently, many companies (Memory Pharmaceuticals, Cortex Pharmaceuticals, Axonyx) are engaged in research on human memory, hoping to find a drug that can compensate for memory loss in patients with Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and AIDS. So, in the saliva of the Mexican lizard-venomous, a substance has been found that can become a cure for Alzheimer's disease. Studies conducted by the biotech firm Axonyx (New York, USA) have shown that the poisonous saliva of a lizard contains a substance that affects previously unknown receptors of the human body, positively affecting memory.
The developments of Memory Pharmaceuticals have discovered several compounds that can prevent memory loss in animals and humans.
Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc. is working on a whole class of compounds that increase the production of nerve growth factor by the brain, the deficiency of which is observed in patients with Alzheimer's disease. One of these compounds is Ampakin.
In 2005, the drug Byetta was approved for the treatment of diabetes, which is a synthetic analogue of the components of the venom of the lizard-venom.
Currently, various drugs of animal origin have been developed that affect the nervous and cardiovascular system, affect the nature of blood clotting, are used to relieve pain, to heal wounds, to protect against viral, bacterial and fungal infections. It should be noted that the vast majority of therapeutically active compounds discovered by humans in nature have adaptive significance and are used by animals for protection and survival, and this storeroom – the storeroom of health and longevity – is practically inexhaustible.