Russia’s Ural Federal University Developing New Medicine against Diabetes

Scientists of Ural Federal University (Ekaterinburg, Russia) have won an open competition by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for the development of medicine for diabetes mellitus treatment. At the moment, the state contract is passing the signing process.

The project named "Preclinical Studies of a Medication Effecting Advanced Glycation end Products (AGEs) and Receptors (RAGE) for the Prevention and Treatment of Complications of Diabetes Mellitus" is being implemented within the frames of the Federal Target Program "Development of the pharmaceutical and medical industry of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020 and further prospects."

Associate Professor of the Department of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, Institute of Chemical Engineering UrFU, Mikhail Varaksin notes that currently the pharmacotherapy of diabetes is associated with normalization of blood glucose levels, although the most important etiopathogenetic factor in the development of late complications is the formation of advanced glycation end products in the process of the Maillard's reaction, non-enzymatic glycosylation (glycation) of proteins.

‘Nowadays, there is no medication with a similar mechanism of pharmacological action that is allowed for clinical use,’ says Mikhail Varaksin. ‘Therefore, the development of medication limiting the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) on long-lived proteins, collagen in particular, interfering with their interaction with specific receptors for AGE (RAGE), as a result, blocking the main pathogenetic pathways of late complications development (diabetic nephropathy, neuropathy, cardiomyopathy) is an extremely urgent task of social and economic significance.’

The work on the project involves preclinical studies of the medication effecting advanced glycation end products of collagen and receptors for the prevention and treatment of complications of diabetes mellitus.

The total financing of the project will reach 44 million rubles, of which 33 million rubles will be allocated from the federal budget. The remaining 11 million rubles will be extrabudgetary co-financed. The period of the contract is 2017-2019. The co-executor of the project is Volgograd State Medical University.

Reference
Nowadays, diabetes takes a special place among a number of socially significant diseases related to chronic pandemics; it shows rapid prevalence. The total number of patients with diabetes in the Russian Federation at the end of 2016 was 4.348 million people (2.97% of the population).

Ural Federal University (UrFU) is one of the largest higher educational institutions in Russia, which brings together fundamental education and innovative approach towards the challenges of modern times.

Currently, the university is home to 32,000 students from 76 countries of the world and more than 4,000 faculty members, including the top-notch global experts in the spheres of natural sciences, engineering and social sciences. Our institutes offer about 400 Bachelor, Master and Doctoral Programs in natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, economics and management taught in Russian and English. The number of UrFU alumni exceeds 360,000 people.

Breakthrough studies are pursued in 72 research excellence centers. The university is open to international collaboration having almost 400 partners all over the globe and being an active participant of such initiatives as BRICS Network University, SCO Network University, CIS University.

Ural Federal University
19, Mira str., Ekaterinburg, Russia, 620002
http://www.urfu.ru/en
Ms. Marina Sannikova, Head of International Marketing Office
info.international@urfu.ru
+7 343 374 54 34

This release was published on openPR.