In Russia, a nanocarbon against allergies has been developed
The drug will be available in six to seven years
Yaroslav Rybakov, Russian Planet
A new drug for targeted drug delivery was presented at the symposium "Breakthrough Technologies of the XXI century" dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the Nobel Prize laureate Academician Zhores Ivanovich Alferov. The nanotechnology revolution has long promised serious changes in medicine. It is difficult to say when exactly "nanorobots" or "nanoimplants" operating inside the human body will be able to "repair" or replace damaged tissues and cells, but some areas of nanomedicine of the future are already developing rapidly today.
One of them is the targeted delivery of medicinal substances enclosed in the shells of nanoscale capsules. Capsules coated with sensitive molecules react only to one pre-determined condition, for example, the presence of cancer cells nearby or getting into the right organ, and only then open up, allowing the active substance to work selectively and clearly.
Last year, researchers from the Institute of General Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences managed to combine several layers of such a "nano-shell", forcing it to work only if several conditions are met simultaneously. Their "protein computer" is capable of performing basic logical operations (YES, NO, AND, OR, etc.) and will make medicines almost reasonable in the future. It is easy to imagine how the drug will begin to be released and act, for example, only if it is within the lungs and at the same time detects the presence of inflammatory signaling molecules.
And although such "pharmacological nanocomputers" are still a matter of the distant future, the Pharma 2020 project, under which scientists from the Institute of Immunology of the Federal Biomedical Agency (AI FMBA) have been working, has been implemented for four years. The drug obtained today is delivered to the cells involved in the allergic reaction, T–lymphocytes, and only then comes into operation – the capsules open, releasing synthetic RNA molecules. They selectively bind to the matrix RNA on which interleukin–4 is synthesized in the cell – and this process is reliably and pointwise switched off, removing one of the key players necessary for the development of allergies from the action.
According to the head of the AI FMBA Musa Khaitov, the drug, which will be available in six to seven years, is able to block one of the central factors in the development of the allergic process, so it can be used to treat bronchial asthma, skin allergies, atopic dermatitis and other diseases of the allergic group.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru18.03.2015