Nanocontainers in the fight against influenza
Alexander Timin, Inna Vorobey, "Trinity Variant"
According to the World Health Organization, from 250 to 500 thousand people die from influenza every year. Due to the fact that this virus mutates rapidly and becomes resistant to drugs, it is very difficult to develop an effective vaccine against it. In Russia, scientists from the Influenza Research Institute in St. Petersburg are trying to solve this problem.
They created a special antiviral RNA against swine flu (H1N1). It attaches to a certain part of the virus and does not allow it to multiply and further infect the body.
But how to deliver this medicine to the body? In order for the molecule to get into the right cell and at the same time preserve its properties, it needs to be packed in a special capsule. Specially for antiviral RNA, it was developed by scientists from the Laboratory of New Dosage Forms at Tomsk Polytechnic University. The results of the joint work were reported in the journal Scientific Reports dated March 7, 2017 (Timin et al., Hybrid inorganic-organic capsules for efficient intracellular delivery of novel siRNAs against influenza A (H1N1) virus infection).
The details of the development of TrV-Science were told by the lead author of the article, Candidate of Chemical Sciences, ml. sci. sotr. laboratories Alexander Timin.
– What does your laboratory do?
– We are engaged in the targeted delivery of biologically active molecules to cells. So we can influence their behavior and change their functions. And this increases the therapeutic effect of medicines. We are developing multifunctional nanocontainers. In them we enclose the biologically active substance we need. These capsules can be magnetically controlled – to deliver the substance to the place we need using a magnet. Then, under the influence of various physical or chemical influences – ultrasound, light, heat – we can release the drug. Or the substances inside the cell destroy the carrier themselves.
– What diseases can be treated with nanocontainers?
– We can already treat acute leukemia, various types of cancer. We meet with doctors, find out what problem needs to be solved, and select a carrier for their practical needs. We work closely with doctors from the Raisa Gorbacheva Institute of Pediatric Hematology and Transplantation.
– Why was the new nanocontainer developed specifically against swine flu, and not some other?
– The Influenza Research Institute could not deliver antiviral RNAs inside the cell, which block the reproduction of this virus. We tried our carrier and got quite good results. As for swine flu, today it is a very common virus. In addition, the new nanocontainers are universal. We have shown that they work against the swine flu virus, but in fact we can transfer several biologically active substances into them at once, which will act against different types of influenza virus.
Intercellular delivery of antiviral microRNA / M. V. Okilova
– How will the nanocontainer find the cell with the virus?
– We assume that nanocontainers will enter the body through the nose as part of a spray. A person will inhale it, the carriers will be distributed in the nasal sinuses, and then the necessary cells will capture them. But the capture problem has not been solved yet. We're working on that right now. We can put special receptors on containers that will be recognized by diseased cells. However, giving selectivity to the drug is a more subtle technology that requires a lot of money: both material and human forces. We will continue to develop this idea together with investors.
– Nanocontainers for drug delivery are already used in medicine. And what is the uniqueness of your carriers?
– For the new containers, we used a special sol-gel technology that allows a thin layer of inorganic material, in this case silica, to be applied to the surface of the capsule. Ordinary containers look like a deflated soccer ball, and after applying such a layer, they already look like a ball. This technology makes it possible to encapsulate (encase. – I. V.) very small molecules and in large quantities. We can use fewer capsules, and they will deliver the medicine more efficiently.
A. Hybrid nanocontainer formation and microRNA encapsulation;
B. Nanocontainers under a microscope; C, D. Empty nanocontainers
Experiments show that thanks to the new method, the amount of virus in the cell is reduced by more than 80%. Tomsk scientists demonstrated on models how it works. However, before the drug reaches the end user, it must go through several stages of clinical trials.
At the next stage – testing on living organisms – the influenza Research Institute and investors should get involved. The Russian Venture Fund (RVC) has already paid attention to multifunctional nanocontainers. Now employees of the Tomsk laboratory are working together with scientists from the University of Hamburg-Eppendorf (Germany) on the delivery of a genome editing system to cells. It should be noted that the Tomsk laboratory is headed by Gleb Sukhorukov, Professor at Queen Mary University of London (Great Britain). The laboratory is funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and the RASA – Russian-speaking Academic Science Association, an international association of Russian–speaking scientists.
In addition to Queen Mary University of London and the Research Institute of Influenza of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, specialists from the First St. Petersburg State Medical University took part in this study. academician I. P. Pavlov.
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12.05.2017