Peaceful and non-peaceful molecular medicine James Watson, one of the discoverers of the helical structure of DNA, who received the Nobel Prize for this. Photo obtained via Internet channels Nauka,

Peaceful and non-peaceful molecular medicine

James Watson, one of the discoverers of the helical structure of DNA, who received the Nobel Prize for this.
Photo received via the Internet

Science, especially fundamental science, is still respected in our country, according to the Soviet habit, but it is considered not a very important occupation. “Comrade scientists, associate professors with candidates” are doing something there, eccentrics, for a small salary. For an ordinary person, this is neither warm nor cold. But an ordinary person falls ill with an unusual disease or an ordinary one, but which they still don’t know how to cure (for example, oncological or diabetes), and then it turns out that the hope is just for science, that maybe “comrade scientists, associate professors with candidates” will have time to come up with, how to determine the disease, how to cure it, while life still glimmers in the patient.

Fundamental science seems to ordinary consciousness as something distant and of little use in everyday life. This is one of the common misconceptions. New data, new discoveries are accumulating in our fast-moving age, too rapidly, there is a reassessment of already known facts, unprecedented opportunities for man appear. The 21st century is likely to be the century of biology. In medicine, the era of genetics and molecular medicine is coming – a science that deals with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of hereditary diseases at the gene level.

Molecular medicine was formed at the intersection of fundamental sciences and practical medicine as a result of achievements in molecular and cellular biology, molecular genetics and biotechnology. The fundamental principle of molecular medicine is that for every disease and every pathological manifestation of the body, there is a molecular target that can be used to identify the disease and drug effects. The genetic susceptibility of a person to drug treatment is studied by the science of pharmacogenetics. The methods of molecular medicine are used here for the individual selection of drugs.

In Europe and the United States, genetics is used to solve a variety of medical problems. In Great Britain, in special information centers, you can get advice on heredity, the genetic predisposition of the body to various diseases, in France, the tendency to disease is determined by the SESAM computer expert system. There are all scientific prerequisites for the creation of genetic databases and genetic passports of the population. This is of great importance, given the growth of oncological, infectious and hereditary diseases in the world and in our country in particular.

In Russia, this science is just beginning to develop, although interest in it is growing day by day. In 2000 at the Moscow Medical Academy. THEM. Sechenov, the Institute of Molecular Medicine was created, where methods are being developed for using gene and cell therapy to diagnose diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, tuberculosis, some oncological and a number of other diseases. In total, more than twenty medical institutions are working on the problems of molecular medicine in our country.

The discoveries of molecular medicine and biotechnology can be applied in a wide variety of fields. The 1st International Conference "Molecular Medicine and Biosafety" held at the initiative of the Institute of Molecular Medicine has just ended in Moscow. Reports on early molecular diagnostics of oncological, viral (HIV, hepatitis, tuberculosis) and other socially significant diseases were presented at the conference. As you know, the earlier a disease is detected, the better it can be treated. At the molecular level, this can only be done earlier. Issues of gene and cell therapy using stem cells were also discussed. This is, if I may say so, a trendy direction, but also causing serious concern in relation to abuse. Treatment with stem cell injections for the purpose of rejuvenation is offered even in beauty salons. Meanwhile, in our country, so far only one stem cell bank has been certified according to the international GMP standard. This area of ​​activity needs strict control, and accounting and control are the same traditional Russian difficulties as fools and roads.

The very name of the conference testifies to the ambiguity of the extraordinary discoveries of this science, which can be used both for good and for evil. Therefore, the problems of international bioterrorism and biosecurity became the subject of special attention. History knows the practice of poisoning wells, infecting besieged cities with plague, and using poison gases on the battlefield. In the 20th century, the only proven fact of the use of biological weapons was the Japanese infection of Chinese territories with plague bacteria in the 1930s and 1940s. Japan began developing biological weapons as early as 1918, the United States in 1942, the developments in the USSR became known to the whole world in 1979 after the disaster near Sverdlovsk. Biological weapons are the cheapest. It is used by third world countries. The simplicity of technologies for obtaining the means of a bioterrorist attack, “kitchen terrorism,” as Academician Mikhail Paltsev called it, makes it possible to make the very act of such an attack unpredictable. Most countries, including Russia, are not ready to face it. The only way out is to develop fundamental biological science, which will develop a system for the rapid recognition of pathogens of especially dangerous infections, as well as the search for effective means of protection against them.

There was no serious biological attack yet and will give God, it will be possible to avoid. And in "peaceful" purposes, molecular medicine is already used. For example, on the analysis of DNA fragments using genetic markers, it is possible to determine the predisposition to one or another disease long before its real manifestation. One to two developing embryo cells is sufficient to establish the likelihood of a heavy hereditary disease, the floor of the future child. An analysis of the definition of paternity has already become elementary, affordable and accurate for the most controversial situations. Near the country's genetic passport of a citizen of the country, a personal health map of each of us.

Scientists working in the field of molecular medicine turned to the president and the government with a request to adopt the federal program "Molecular Medicine and Biosafety". For the military or, if you want, the defense funds funds have always been found. And this is defense – from the biological war. From it you can not have time and on a personal plane to escape. If you do not regret money, you look, something will remain on the use of molecular medicine in practical health care.