There is not enough artificial leather for everyone

Progress – on the face

Natalia Leskova, "Results" No. 11-2013

This technology saved Sergey Filin's face. Its common name, often used today, is "artificial leather". This material is used all over the world for the treatment of severe skin lesions – burns, trophic ulcers, dermatitis, psoriasis. At the same time, few people know that scientists from Pushchina near Moscow have become pioneers in this kind of development. In the laboratory of cell and Tissue Growth of the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the first samples of "artificial skin" that fully performs the functions of the destroyed epidermis appeared back in the 80s of the last century. And today our scientists have something to show.

It will heal itselfFor 30 years, dozens of anti–burn drugs have been developed in Pushchina using cellular technologies - film, gel, for surface damage, for medical cosmetics, for regeneration.

Photo: Nikolay GalkinOne of the latest gel samples based on cellular technologies was developed by Pushchin residents together with Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Andrey Alekseev, head of the Department of Thermal Lesions of the Russian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education.

The burn Center of the Moscow City Clinical Hospital No. 36 is the clinical base of this department. Sergey Filin was treated just in this hospital, and the drug was applied to him on the first day. "Regeneration of damaged tissues was started instantly. And the result stunned even some doctors, who at first said: the patient will have a number of complex plastic surgeries, and still there is no guarantee that he will regain his former appearance," says Professor Boris Gavrilyuk, head of the Laboratory of Cell and Tissue Growth at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a member of the International Union for Combating Burn Lesions. – However, without any operations, only with the help of our drugs, after five days there was almost no trace of the former burns. The patient's skin is smooth, devoid of scars and scars."

The effect was so amazing that at first a rumor spread on the Internet: there was no attack, because after an acid burn it is impossible to restore a face in five days! "There were deep burns, of course," says Gavrilyuk. "And, probably, we were the only ones who did not doubt the effectiveness of the treatment for a minute." According to the professor, Russia today has perhaps the most effective anti-burn drugs in the world, but it is difficult to introduce them into medical practice.

Boris Gavrilyuk recalls that the task of learning how to help people with severe burns was set for Soviet scientists almost immediately after the Chernobyl tragedy. It was necessary to understand whether, in connection with the threat of nuclear disasters, which are accompanied by a huge number of injured people burned by ultraviolet and gamma radiation, it was possible to create an "artificial skin" to help them. There was a need to develop such materials that would correspond in their properties to the upper layer of the skin and have the ability to regenerate the lower destroyed layers. Long-term experiments on laboratory mice, thousands of experiments, work with volunteers resulted in the birth of a so-called biological colloid, in which it was possible to combine the medicinal properties of synthetic materials and the biological properties of natural polymers. However, as scientists say, the components can be used in various combinations, the main thing is that, depending on the nature of the damage, they provide an optimal combination of physical and mechanical properties (protection, vapor, gas permeability, strength, elasticity) and regenerative properties (mobility and reproduction of cells in the wound, binding of toxins and destructive enzymes, partial recovery damaged intermolecular bonds of biopolymers). The biological colloid heals not only burns of any degree, but also saves from the consequences of frostbite.

"Before that, so–called wound coatings were mainly used to treat various kinds of skin injuries," says Professor Gavrilyuk. – They have good mechanical properties, protect wounds from external influences and more or less promote healing. However, they lacked the main thing – the ability to regulate the healing process of the wound. We have created a system that allows you to control this process, providing complete regeneration in the normal reconstructive direction and restoring the tissue. The effect was several times higher."

In other words, the components of this colloid gel contain substances of the necessary viscosity that stimulate the movement of cells in the right direction - this is how the regeneration process starts, bypassing the processes of inflammation and suppuration. The system completely stops inflammatory phenomena, conducts a layer-by-layer stop of the process of tissue destruction, cleanses the wound and starts cell reproduction in it… But that's not all. To remove such a bandage when it is no longer necessary, no effort is required. At first, the coating adheres well to the wound, and then it is easily separated from it. Simply put, no pain, no blood.

Step-by-step restoration of a burned hand. Photo of the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The uniqueness of the development is also in the fact that the healing effect on the wound can occur at any stage of treatment and at any age of the patient. "The observations suggest that successful restoration of organs and tissues is possible not only at a young age, but also at an advanced age," says Boris Gavrilyuk. – Therefore, the future belongs to such regenerative systems that will restore tissues by controlling processes in the affected area. So far, our systems are practically the only ones in the world that purposefully use such an approach to treatment."

Not for everyoneFor the first time, Gavrilyuk and his colleagues had a chance to apply early development options en masse in Ufa in 1989, when an explosion on an oil pipeline laid nearby followed as a result of a collision of two fast trains.

There were countless victims. However, many people managed to help then, and this became the starting point for further research. Soon there was a real hope that the development of Pushchinsky biophysicists was about to appear in pharmacies and ambulances. Then there were disasters at coal mines in the Donbass, a terrible fire in the building of the Samara police department, where hundreds of people were injured… In all these cases, the preparations of Pushchinsky biophysicists turned out to be useful. Subsequently, successful tests of the biological colloid took place at the Burn Center of the A.V. Vishnevsky Institute of Surgery of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, in the Department of Acute Thermal Lesions of the N. V. Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine, in the clinic of thermal lesions of the S. M. Kirov Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg, in the Moscow Regional Children's Burn Center, in Department of Surgical and Conservative treatment of radiation injuries of the Medical Radiological Research Center of the Ministry of Health of Russia. Nevertheless, Pushchinsky biophysicists continue to dream of mass use of their original developments. Gavrilyuk, for example, still regrets that during the fire at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, doctors and rescuers did not have their medications. "If they were armed with at least a few sheets of "smart skin", the lives of many people could be saved," the professor complains. – With burns, even 90 percent of the surface of the body will not die if the drug is immediately applied to the wound."

According to the most conservative estimates, the audience of patients with burns of varying severity is about 700 thousand people a year. Not to mention more than a million patients with various types of trophic lesions of skin surfaces and frostbite. "The drugs of this series open up new possibilities of modern medicine, and I really want them to become available to everyone who needs it," says Director of the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Henrikh Ivanitsky.

Nevertheless, the colloid that has passed the necessary tests and certifications has not yet been put into mass production. It would seem that effective development should be implemented as soon as possible in mass healthcare for all those in need. However, not everything is so simple.

According to Professor Gavrilyuk, in order for drugs to be produced on an industrial scale, a huge number of all kinds of permits, licenses and certificates are required, and if the Ministry of Health helped in this before, now developers have to put money out of their own pocket and punch everything themselves. Where did scientists get such money from? Therefore, the drugs are listed as experimental, and their use is possible only with the consent of the patient. There are no dissenters – there is only the problem of a shortage of medicine for everyone. Sergey Filin was among the lucky ones. He got the latest version of the drug.

Scientists provide a life–saving remedy for burns and ulcers for many to hospitals and treatment centers free of charge - on the condition that joint research with the institute will be conducted there. Such observations, in particular, are conducted in the Serpukhov City Hospital named after Semashko, Tula Ambulance Hospital, Moscow City Hospital No. 36, are now being organized in the children's surgical department of MONICA, large medical institutions in Moscow and other Russian cities. It is clear that the need for these developments is very high. "We distribute drugs as much as we can,– says Boris Gavrilyuk. – At the same time, cooperation with hospitals does not bring us anything but a sense of satisfaction from the results of joint work. Alas, today our production is unprofitable for us."

And since our scientists are famous for their inability to promote their inventions on the market, most likely, promising developments will sail to the West, from where we will then buy them at prices several times higher. This is, to put it mildly, strange, besides, Russia today is indeed almost the foremost in this industry.

For example, last week Tyumen immunologists finished testing the so-called liquid skin, or cell gel. According to the developers, it is able to heal wounds on the surface of the human body three times faster than the means known today. And the donor of the active substance was an ordinary chicken. Stem cells were borrowed from her embryo, on the basis of which the gel was formed. With his help, doctors have already managed to recreate at the cellular level the skin damaged by radiation and altered by diabetes mellitus. However, Tyumen scientists, unlike Pushchinsky, intend to promote their brainchild through the Skolkovo innovation center, hoping that this support will help them realize their scientific dream – to develop a so-called skin immunocytogram, which will make the treatment of each patient purely individual. But this is a completely different story.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru18.03.2013