By the same principle, it can protect against Nipah and Hand viruses.
The creation of an unusual type of molecule that will help protect the body from infection not only with coronavirus, but also with other dangerous infections, was announced by the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Alexander Sergeev, at a press conference on Friday. It was created by specialists of the Federal Research Center “Fundamental Foundations of Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences” under the leadership of Academician Vladimir Popov.
The Center traditionally created small molecules of antiviral or antimicrobial action, which traditionally act on pathogens, that is, they act on the virus or bacteria itself. Facing a year and a half ago with the task of countering the coronavirus and the new possible infections that are coming to replace it, scientists decided to go the other way. We decided for the first time to use the original method of struggle, using a molecule of a new class that had never been used before. It does not directly affect the particles of the virus, but reliably blocks the mechanisms of its interaction with the host cell.
According to Vadim Makarov, Doctor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, who made a presentation at the General Meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the project was based on the ideology according to which there is no point in chasing a changing virus all the time and creating something new every time with the arrival of its new strain.
“You can predict and be ready for the new that may come,” he said.
The PDSTP molecule has become such a basis against the current SARS-CoV-2 and new viruses. Makarov spoke about the mechanism of its action:
“Scientists have long thought that the first stage of interaction between a coronavirus and a cell occurs at the level of its meeting with the ASE2 receptor on the cell surface. This is not the case. The first interaction process is the process of adhesion – the adhesion of the virus to the host cell through the so-called heparan sulfate membrane proteins. They play the role of a kind of trap for the virus, which literally adheres first to these proteins, and then begins to interact with the ASE2 receptor ”.
It turns out, according to the same principle – with the help of a heparan sulfate “trap” many other viruses are introduced into the human body: HIV cyomegalovirus, papilloma virus, herpes, as well as Nipah and Handa. According to Makarov, scientists and doctors are already waiting for the arrival of the last two.
So, the PDSTP molecule was invented precisely in order to prevent the initial adhesion of the virus to the membrane “trap”. The molecule has a complex compound, in the nodes of which there are four positively charged nitrogen atoms and these atoms are very reliably closed from any enzymes that could destroy this molecule in the body. And at the same time, the substance is able to firmly electrostatically bind with the same membrane protein on the cell surface, as if closing it from the virus.
Its activity, effectiveness and safety have already been confirmed not only in Russia (scientists interacted with the St. Petersburg Institute for Testing Medicine), but also in a number of European laboratories. Even with the introduction of it into the body on the third day after the onset of the disease, pneumonia in laboratory animals was avoided.
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