© Photo: Courtesy of the press-service of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry
MOSCOW, December 14 - RIA Novosti. Belogurov Alexander, a senior researcher at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, told RIA "News" on the very promising cure for multiple sclerosis, established in Russia, and shared his thoughts on how the development of these drugs brings us closer to the disclosure of the causes of this serious illness.
Multiple sclerosis - a disease of the nervous system, the development of which the immune cells start attacking the skin nerve fibers, called myelin. Without nerve myelin performed worse signal and begin to "lock" that leads to different effects on lung numbness or paralysis of limbs to blindness. According to WHO statistics, today more than 2.3 million people suffer from this disease, effective ways that do not yet invented treatment.
In June of this year, Russian biologists have taken the first step to solving this problem by creating a cure for multiple sclerosis and check his work on human volunteers. It is a collection of microscopic beads medications surrounded by "nanobroney" synthetic fat molecules, which gradually disintegrate when ingested. Drug itself comprises myelin fragments that "teach" the immune system does not attack the nerve cells.
At the end of last week in the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, the first scientific conference dedicated to multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases. Speaking at her Belogurov and several other scientists told about the progress in the development of this drug and the study of other immunological problems, affecting the nervous system and other organs of the body.
- It is enough to understand how the situation with access to drugs, their development and the status of multiple sclerosis in Russia. But there is another potential "weak link" in the fight against the disease - the people themselves. What do you think, how well our doctors understand what it is and how often they put the correct and incorrect diagnoses?
- I have no medical training, and I find it difficult enough to answer this question. We are, above all, the fundamental aspects of the biochemical bases of occurrence of multiple sclerosis. Of course, the contact with the doctors there, but clinical practice, we do not pay a lot of time. However, in my opinion, the vast majority of my fellow doctors have world-class expertise.
- This summer, you talked about the creation of a new drug for the treatment of MS by using liposomes, and tested it on volunteers. Is there any progress in the clinical trials, whether it is the pharmaceutical companies, and when patients can get the medicine interested?
- At the moment there is a preparation for the next phase of clinical trials. Of course, interest in the drug is present, and we hope that he will repeatedly increase in the future in case of success of clinical trials. In the most favorable scenario, the drug could be on sale in two to three years.
- In addition to liposomes, there are other approaches for the treatment of multiple sclerosis - other types of nanoparticles, monoclonal antibodies, stem cells, and even vitamin D. How these promising methods of struggle with multiple sclerosis, they concede liposomes?
- The use of monoclonal antibodies, for example, the most famous - Rituximab, often leads to serious complications. The reason for this - a systemic immune suppression. Similar products are successfully used in the treatment of malignant tumors, but in this case there is a direct threat to the life of the patient and the account goes on for months.
The use of stem cells is still not widespread because of irreproducibility clinical effect. Lack of vitamin D really is correlated with the risk of multiple sclerosis, but it is rather the prevention of disease rather than its treatment. Actively and successfully used glatiramer acetate (Copaxone) and interferon-beta. I emphasize that it is too early to compare the effectiveness of our product with the existing solutions.
What can be asserted unambiguously - our product is well tolerated by patients. Results of Phase I clinical trials by definition, can not give an understanding of the effectiveness of the drug. The first changes the status of patients with this form of therapy become visible not earlier than 6 months after starting treatment. However, we fixed the stabilization of patients treated with our product, which could not be achieved by other means.
- It is known that the development of multiple sclerosis leads to sleep problems, fatigue and many other unpleasant things - whether reception deliver drugs, including your liposomes, these effects of multiple sclerosis?
- Of course. The first thing that any drug targets for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, including ours, is to improve the quality of life of patients.
- It is not entirely clear what the reasons for developing this disease. Will the creation of drugs for multiple sclerosis to understand what causes the immune system to attack the membrane of neurons?
- That's right, the etiology (causes of - ed.) Of multiple sclerosis is still a mystery. At the moment, it is obvious that this disease is multifactorial. In other words, prior to the occurrence of multiple sclerosis occurs several events, such as prior virus disease, lack of vitamin D, increasing the permeability of the blood-brain barrier, crashing negative selection of lymphocytes and uncontrolled increase in the tone of the immune system.
Important role played by genetic predisposition. Of course, the creation of a new generation of drugs for the treatment of multiple sclerosis requires a deep understanding of the mechanisms underlying the emergence and further development of multiple sclerosis. Our preparation has just such a story, as it was based on a number of fundamental discoveries related to how behave B-cells of the immune system with the appearance of multiple sclerosis.
- Once you have submitted your design, you talked about the decision, "the social and economic problems" - whether from the state support in this regard and whether it interferes with doing foreign pharmaceutical companies wishing to promote their drugs for multiple sclerosis in the Russian market?
- We definitely feel the interest and support of our development on the part of government agencies, especially the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and the Russian Science Foundation. Modern science - it is a very costly and it is encouraging to note that public funding allows you to do a lot of interesting and useful in this regard.
It should be noted that the domestic pharmaceuticals has not gone away, and our product would never have seen the light without the company of "pursuing its goal", which bears the primary financial burden in terms of clinical trials of the drug. Do we have the detractors of the major players in the pharma business? I'd like to believe that soon there will be, because it would mean that we are on the right track.
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