A group of chemists at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), led by Professor Pavel Troshin, has developed a method for producing soluble substances necessary for combating dangerous viruses, including HIV. This was reported on the website of the institute.
The antiviral properties of carbon compounds of fullerenes have been known to science for a long time - they block the vital activity of viruses and interfere with their reproduction. However, it was not possible to create a medicine from these forms of carbon, since fullerene molecules do not dissolve in water and other biological media, which makes it impossible to use drugs based on them in the human body.
The Skoltech research team has set itself the task of creating modified fullerene compounds that will be suitable for further medical use. After a series of quantum-chemical calculations, the experts developed a reaction due to which derivatives of these carbon compounds improve their antiviral properties and dissolve in water.
The first successes in the work of researchers became known back in 2017, when using this method the first water-soluble compound was obtained. At the moment, scientists have managed to synthesize a whole line of derivatives of fullerenes with various antiviral properties.
“Our latest work is devoted to the synthesis of highly effective inhibitors of dangerous viral infections, such as HIV, various types of influenza, herpes simplex virus and cytomegalovirus, using fullerene derivatives as a multifunctional platform. The unique “reversed Arbuzov reaction” we discovered allows us to fine-tune the antiviral properties of the new compounds and establish the most important correlations between the structure of the compounds and their antiviral activity, ”says Olga Kraevaya, a post-graduate student at Skoltech.
Also in an interview with RT, the researcher stated that years and even decades could pass before the first drugs for HIV and flu based on modified fullerenes are received. Now scientists are testing animals on animals.