Biomedical projects in RUSNANO
Full text of the article by Alexander Kimonovich
"Nanotechnology. First Blood"published in the appendix to the newspaper "Kommersant" dated 04.12.2008 "Rosnanotech-2008".
Medical projects are the most profitable object of venture investment in the field of nanotechnology in the world. Recently, the Supervisory board of the Rusnano State Corporation recommended that the board approve a deal to finance the Beta project to create a production of medical equipment for cascade nanofiltration of blood plasma and its purification from harmful substances and viruses.
Several more projects are related to the use of platform technologies in the development of medicines. Platform technologies are methods of obtaining a ready–made dosage form, which uses some universal method of modifying the active substance or the form itself. The most common of them are microcapsulation (the creation of nanoscale complexes of active substances with biocompatible and biodegradable synthetic and natural polymers), as well as the production of matrix, multilayer, shell tablets and capsules.
TSVT "HimRar" is negotiating with Rusnano on clinical (preclinical studies have already been completed) studies of drugs in nanopackages, including taxol and nurofen of prolonged action.
Nanopackage b can increase the activity of the drug several times and increase its therapeutic properties. Platform technologies of controlled drug release are particularly relevant for the targeted delivery of highly toxic anticancer drugs.
During the journey through the bloodstream, nanoparticles can become overgrown with plasma proteins, they are absorbed by immune guardians — macrophages. To protect nanoparticles from the immune system and prolong their stay in the body, polymer chains are attached to them, and for precise targeting, antibodies to molecules typical of tumor cells are attached.
A project in the field of creating targeted drug delivery systems using nanoliposomes is being developed by the Department of Biotechnology of the Moscow Institute of Fine Chemical Technologies. Scientists are designing a liposomal anti-cancer drug in which thermosensitive liposomes are wrapped in a polymer and equipped with antibodies that determine the "delivery address". Now the group of Professor Alexander Kaplun, together with the Cancer Center and the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is going to biological tests of nanocarriage.
Rusnano is also interested in developments in the direction of programmable release of the active molecule of a medicinal substance using dendrimer molecules (their structure is similar to a branched tree), which can also be used as drug transporters. Or the creation of aerosol vaccines on nanolipid platforms. The development of such vaccines has become seriously interested in the United States, as they have demonstrated a number of undoubted advantages over injectable vaccines.
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru04.12.2008