MOSCOW, March 20, by Nikolay Guryanov. Chemists from Saransk create medicines based on the poisonous hogweed Sosnovsky. If successful, the most dangerous invasive species will help treat cancer. However, eco-activists criticize such innovations.
Evil for good
When a person comes into contact with Sosnowsky's hogweed, juice containing furanocoumarins gets on the skin. These substances enhance the action of ultraviolet radiation, and sunlight causes severe burns.
Scientists from Mordovian State University (MGU) named after Ogarev decided to use this dangerous plant for good. Valentin Ageev, junior researcher at the Laboratory of Pharmacokinetics and Targeted Pharmacotherapy, and his supervisor, Doctor of Medical Sciences Oleg Kulikov developed special nanoparticles (liposomes) with hogweed juice.
The resulting drug composition is delivered to malignant cells, penetrates into them and irreversibly binds DNA with furanocoumarins under the influence of ultraviolet irradiation. This disrupts the process of tumor cell division — apoptosis occurs, their self-destruction.
Tests were carried out in cell culture and on laboratory animals, to which the preparation based on hogweed was administered intravenously.
«Impossible to guarantee»
Scientists propose to treat cancer of the skin, intestines, bladder and other types of cancer with the help of a medicine from hogweed extract.
Before the active remedy while very far away, Ageev notes, he plans to defend his Ph.D. thesis on this topic.
“New drug development, registration, preclinical and clinical trials — a very long and expensive process,” he says. — In addition to the medicinal formula, we need a treatment method optimized for humans. It is not yet possible to guarantee the success of the project.”
If it comes down to a cure, then, according to the scientist, one ton of hogweed can produce 20 grams of the required substance, or 80 doses.
Concrete, batteries and alcohol
This is far from the first attempt to find a use for an invasive species that has captured vast territories in Central Russia, the Russian North, the Urals and Siberia. So, cow parsnip was offered as an anode material for sodium-ion batteries, an additive for reinforcing concrete, a medicine for psoriasis, a raw material for the production of paper and alcohol.
Despite the abundance of projects, nothing is known about the practical results, notes the founder of the Antiborshchevik movement, Maria Popova. She sees the reports of the potential benefits of the harmful umbrella plant as «reason for hype.»
«All the beneficial properties of hogweed can be found somewhere else. cancer from grapefruit, no one will repost it so furiously,” the activist believes.
In her opinion, headlines about the benefits of hogweed are harmful because they lull the population's vigilance.
«In people an illusion is created: «So, you can not fight with cow parsnip, since it is so useful. In fact, we are dealing with a large-scale environmental disaster,» Popova emphasizes. «It is crowding out local plants. And we are actually losing our nature.»
Ageev denies accusations of wanting to hype.
«My supervisor and I were looking for a more toxic substance to direct it to cancer cells,» he explains. «Cow parsnip attracted us not as an endless source of raw materials, but with its components.»
«We don't need it»
According to Ageev, wild thickets are still not suitable for pharmaceuticals. The requirements for the raw materials of medical preparations are such that the cow parsnip will have to be bred on special plantations under strict control, away from exhaust gases and other pollutants. obtained by chemical synthesis — it all depends on economic feasibility.
“Wild hogweed is only good for one thing: we can collect it in the summer, squeeze out the juice, isolate the furanocoumarins and continue our research,” the researcher from Saransk clarifies. — Therefore, let the hogweed be destroyed without sparing. We, scientists, do not need it in such quantities.”
In turn, Popova recalls that the spread of the invasive plant began precisely with the decision to use it in the national economy as livestock feed. Then no one knew about its dangerous properties. But even today, according to environmentalists, not everyone understands the extent of the threat.