A sensor for surrogate alcohol and a prodrug for cancer were presented at the exhibition of young scientists of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus

January 24, MINSK . An exhibition of young scientists was held at the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, BELTA correspondent reports.

The exhibition took place before the opening of the republican conference of students “The First Step into Science”. Exhibition participant, representative of the Institute of Technical Acoustics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Ilya Kritchenkov said that their project is related to the creation of a luminescent express sensor that allows the determination of ethanol or methanol in various substances.

"The development of sensors capable of expressly distinguishing between methanol and ethanol is important from a social and medical point of view. Every year, about a thousand poisonings with methanol and ethylene glycol occur in the country. This is about 5% of the total number of poisonings. Of these, about a hundred methanol poisonings lead to death ", said Ilya Kritchenkov.

“We plan to use the sensor soon, since it already allows for the express determination of methanol and ethanol in strong drinks by changing the color of the glow. When methanol is added, the sensor glow changes from yellow to green; when ethanol is added, the yellow color does not change. We are now working on this , so that the sensor can allow the rapid determination of deadly ALCOHOL in low-alcohol drinks. A sample requires only 10 mcg of the substance. We are also working to reduce the cost of a sensor sample, which is currently about one kopeck. We hope that we will be allowed to complete this development before general use, i.e. the sensors will be available for purchase to the entire population,” added Ilya Kritchenkov.

The Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus has developed a biomaterial that accelerates the restoration of damaged bone and cartilage tissue. "It has two components. The first is an inorganic gel of synthetic amorphous calcium phosphate, which is a source of stress material for bone tissue and stimulates osteogenesis. The second component is ordinary human blood plasma, which can be obtained either from the patient’s body or using donor blood "This component accelerates the formation of soft tissues of blood vessels," said Ilya Glazov, Candidate of Chemical Sciences, senior researcher at the Institute of General Inorganic Chemistry, Chairman of the Council of Young Scientists of the Department of Chemistry and Earth Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

“Accordingly, when we mix the components, we get a product into which fragments of the patient’s cartilage or bone chips can be added, which also has a positive effect on the survival rate of the material and the rate of tissue healing. The final form of our implant is an elastic clot that is capable of completely filling the bone volumes defects of any shape. It is retained in volume due to the fact that it has adhesive properties, and over time is completely replaced by new, healthy bone and cartilage tissue without any defects. Our material has been successfully tested in clinical conditions for rhinoplasty. In the future, we plan expand the scope of its application,” added Ilya Glazov.

According to him, the history of this work is much older than his scientific career. In general, the work has been going on for about 20-30 years, and he has been in it for about 8 years. “The laboratory began with the development of calcium phosphate gels of various forms, now we have moved on to more fashionable composites. Despite its apparent simplicity, the material has no analogues in the world. This in itself is surprising, because it is quite promising,” explained Ilya Glazov.

The Enzyme Laboratory of the Institute of Microbiology of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus presents a project in the form of a test system for the detection of D-amino acids. “They will be strips or biochips, and the design will be similar to litmus paper or a glucometer. It will be possible to drop a drop of a sample onto the biochip and obtain the result of the concentration of D-amino acids in it.
Using the test system, it will be possible to quickly determine, without special qualifications, Is there bacterial contamination in drugs in production and is it of high quality or low quality? It will also be possible to determine the quality of food products in production, find fakes and originals. D-amino acids have no nutritional value, so their large presence will reduce the quality and value of the product for the human body,” noted Margarita Vasilevskaya, junior researcher at the enzyme laboratory of the Institute of Microbiology of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

“The test system can find application in chemical synthesis and in prodrug therapy of cancer tumors, which also accumulate D-amino acids. Using the enzyme, it will be possible to oxidize D-amino acids in cancer tumors, resulting in the formation of hydrogen peroxide, which suppresses the growth of these tumors,” - Margarita Vasilevskaya explained.

According to her, this project is primarily aimed at helping in professional activities, but since D-amino acids are also present in our body, and their level may indicate the development of malignant tumors or neurogenerative diseases, in the future it will be possible to use these tests. systems for home use.
Photo by Sergei Sheleg