A method for the production of special molecules that accelerate tissue healing was developed by Vyatka State University scientists. According to them, the technology will allow the production in Russia of drugs that are in demand in the growth of artificial organs and in traumatology.
Platelet growth factor is a protein molecule that accelerates the development of fibroblasts and other "building blocks" used by the body to heal damaged tissues. In the human body, this molecule is produced in very small quantities.
Medicines based on platelet growth factors are widely used in traumatology and regenerative medicine, the scientists said. According to them, such drugs have a strong therapeutic effect, and are also used in the cultivation of artificial organs and tissues from stem cells.
Specialists at Vyatka State University are developing a technology that will allow industrial production of platelet growth factor. According to the authors, the technology is focused on import substitution.
"Our method has analogues in the world, but for various reasons, foreign drugs with a growth factor are now difficult to access in Russia. You can buy the molecules themselves abroad, but they are not cheap, and supplies may stop at any moment. According to our forecasts, the new technology may become two or three times more productive than foreign ones," said Anna-Anastasia Misterova, junior researcher at the Department of Biotechnology of the Institute of Biology and Biotechnology of Vyatka State University.
The source of the valuable substance was Pichia pastoris yeast, in the genome of which scientists placed a cloned human gene encoding platelet growth factor. The addition of methyl alcohol, which this type of single-celled fungus uses for energy and carbon, causes the genetically modified yeast to synthesize a growth factor, which is then purified using chromatography.
According to VyatSU specialists, they managed to obtain the growth factor PDGF-BB with a purity of more than 98 percent and high stability. Scientists have created a prototype drug in the form of a gel containing a growth factor of 100 µg/ml.
“Our method for extracting growth factor from yeast has no analogues in the scientific literature. Our solution as a whole will probably be of interest to those countries and companies that are forced to “catch up” in this segment of biotechnology, caring of how economical it is,” said Anna-Anastasia Misterova.
In the future, the research team intends to improve the proposed technology.
