© Photo : the Russian scientific Fund
«Now a little-studied process of interaction of nanoentities with antigens, and as a consequence insufficiently developed methods for their modification. As the process is time-consuming and complicated, almost no one does. Thus, nanoparticle is a black box, which all work, but no one knows what is happening. And we look in the box and try to understand and apply in practice», — says Olga Kostareva from the Institute of protein research in Moscow.
The so-called nanoparticle represent a fragment of «normal» antibodies that contain only one randomly-arranged «strojjblok» which usually gather their molecules. Due to this, the molecules of antibody are much leaner and more stable and more resistant to heat and aggressive chemical environments, including stomach acid and digestive enzymes.
Such antibodies, as noted Kostareva not found in the human body and almost all other animals, and they were discovered recently when studying samples of blood and other biomaterials camels, alpacas, llamas and sharks. The first experiments with them showed that they can inhibit the development of many viral infections and thus they are much easier to produce and easier to store than «normal» antibodies.
In recent years, many laboratories and pharmaceutical companies are trying to adapt such nanoentities to work in the human body. It needs to solve two tasks – to make them less visible and more compatible with our immune system, and learn to change their structure in order to fit them to struggle with the new versions of pathogens or autoimmune diseases.
Today, according to the biologist, these experiments are conducted is actually random, and scientists still have no idea exactly how nanoparticle are formed and how their structure can be changed. Russian scientists, according to Kostarelos, today, are actively working to develop methods of their «deliberate» Assembly and modification.
It lies in the fact that scientists freeze existing nanoparticle and Shine it through an x-ray, getting accurate data on the location of all the atoms inside it. Using computer models, biologists can understand how the antibody interacts with its target, and determine how it needs to be modified.
Using this approach, scientists can design more effective molecules that will be targeted to combat certain stimuli, for example, with avian influenza and other infections against which there is no medication.
https://chelorg.com/2017/11/23/camel-blood-can-help-scientists-from-the-russian-academy-of-sciences-...
