Clinical trials are planned in 2017
Scientists from Russia, Slovenia and Israel have developed nanoagents that make cancer cells “starve” by inhibiting their reproduction and development. In 2017, clinical trials are planned, the director of the Institute of Physics of Strength and Materials Science (IPPM) of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) laboratory "Medical Materials Science" Sergei Psakhie told TASS.
“This is a new direction. We have developed nanoscale agents that look like a sheet about one nanometer thick and crumpled into a ball with a diameter of 200 nanometers. They change the environment of cells in such a way that they are not able to eat normally, “starve”, as a result of which their division is impeded and development slows down,”he said.
According to him, this is a complex interdisciplinary project led by scientists of different specialties from several countries. The agents themselves were developed by TPU and IPPM scientists, the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) is modeling the processes of interaction with cells using a supercomputer at Moscow State University. Scientists at the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) use modern electron microscopy to investigate the fine structure of anticancer agents.
Now specialists from the Joseph Stefan Institute (Slovenia) are conducting tests on cell cultures and special laboratory animals. In particular, they investigated the effect of nanoagents in combination with a traditional chemotherapy drug, due to which its effectiveness increased significantly.
In the long term, this is the way to reduce the dosage of chemotherapy, says Psahier. "The cycle of these trials will end in 2016, and we plan to start clinical trials in a year," he explained.
Psakhye noted that part of the work is being carried out within the framework of the fulfillment of state assignments, part is financed by the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) and within the framework of the TPU international competitiveness enhancement program. Also used are the developments created during the implementation of projects of federal target programs of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. A total of "more than one million dollars" was invested in these studies.
