"Biopharmaceutical Nobel Prize" – to Russian scientists
Russian scientists were awarded the International Galen Prize
Yuri Medvedev, The Galen Prize was established in 1970 by the French pharmacist Roland Mele to promote outstanding achievements in the development of innovative medicines and new methods of treatment. It is named after the ancient physician and pharmacist Claudius Galen. Its laureates were famous scientists, including those who were awarded the Nobel Prize.
The laureates were Doctor of Biological Sciences Alexander Sobolev and Candidate of Biological Sciences Andrey Rosenkrantz from the Institute of Gene Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as Doctor of Biological Sciences Vladimir Lunin from the Gamalei Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.
Their development will allow thousands of times to increase the effectiveness of drugs and, above all, in oncology. The created tool has already received three patents from Russia and one from the USA. Currently, patent applications have been filed in more than 100 countries around the world.
We are talking about the targeted delivery of a drug inside a living cell. Today, this is the number one task in the world of medicine and pharmaceuticals. The "golden bullet" or "magic bullet", hitting exactly the target, should increase the effectiveness of the drug thousands of times and reduce side effects to almost zero. This is especially true in oncology. It is necessary to kill cancer cells without harming healthy ones.
Scientists from the world's leading laboratories have already learned how to deliver a "bullet" to diseased cells, moreover, even penetrate them. But then the problems begin. The fact is that the cell has weaknesses and, above all, its nucleus. It is enough to disable it, and the cancer cell will die. But, alas, so far such a targeted "shooting" does not work. A bullet that has penetrated into the cell can get anywhere, in fact, it moves blindly inside the cell. Russian scientists have managed to solve this most difficult task. They have learned to purposefully hit any predetermined point of the cell. How did it work out?
– We have created a nanotransporter with a size of 10.5 nanometers, – Professor Alexander Sobolev told the correspondent of "RG". – This is a large molecule consisting of four modules. Figuratively speaking, it resembles a train with several cars linked together.
The first module provides the fastening of the medicine to the entire "train". The second makes it possible to recognize a target cell among many cells and penetrate into it together with intracellular transport vesicles (vesicles). By the way, it was for the discovery of the vesicular transport system in cells that the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded this year. The third module helps the drug and its nanotransporter to get out of the bubbles, the fourth provides movement into the core.
According to Alexander Sobolev, tests on cancer cells have shown that this method increases the effectiveness of antitumor agents by 4,000 times, for example, photosensitizers and radionuclides. Why such a sharp increase? The fact is that with the usual method, these funds simply do not get into the core.
– I want to emphasize that a nanotransporter is not a medicine or even a means of delivering a particular drug, – says Professor Sobolev. – This is a platform that can deliver different drugs to any point inside a variety of cells.
Now the nanotransporter is undergoing preclinical tests in the USA and the Herzen Institute of Oncology of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru07.11.2013