Experimental drug for myasthenia gravis
Russian scientists have created a cure for muscle weakness
Biologists from Kazan have developed a new drug that can suppress myasthenia gravis (muscle weakness) and at the same time does not have strong side effects, the press service of the Russian Science Foundation reports.
According to WHO statistics, about one and a half million inhabitants of the Earth suffer from myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease in which the immune system begins to attack the nerve endings that control the work of muscles. As a result, a person gradually loses control over individual muscle groups, and this often leads to death due to respiratory arrest.
According to Konstantin Petrov, a chemist from the Institute of Organic and Physical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences in For example, in recent years, scientists have developed dozens of drugs that help patients with muscle weakness to survive and not experience constant fatigue. Most of these drugs block the enzyme AChE, which decomposes acetylcholine – the "action signal" by which nerve cells control the work of muscle cells.
According to scientists, such therapy can eliminate most of the symptoms of myasthenia gravis, but it has some unpleasant side effects associated with disorders in the bladder and intestines. All this significantly worsens the quality of life of patients.
Kazan chemists and biologists have found an alternative way to combat muscle weakness – they have developed a new molecule C-547, which can block the action of the AChE enzyme, and its side effects are not as pronounced as those of other drugs.
Unlike them, this substance interacts only with AChE and does not interfere with the work of other enzymes that control the processes in the digestive and urination organs.
The work of the drug was tested by scientists on rats and human bladder tissue samples. As it turned out, small doses of C-547, necessary to combat muscle weakness, do not cause any changes in the functioning of the bladder muscles. Whereas pyridostigmine bromide – the usual "competitor" of a new drug – significantly increases the tone and strength of contractions of the walls of this organ.
In addition, Kazan chemists have shown that the effect of taking C-547 persists for quite a long time – more than 72 hours. Thanks to these properties, the C-547 inhibitor will become one of the most promising drugs to combat the symptoms of myasthenia gravis, the authors conclude.
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