Scientists from Kazan developed a drug for muscle weakness

Biologists from Kazan have developed a new drug capable of suppressing myasthenia (muscle weakness) without inducing strong side effects.

According to Konstantin Petrov, a chemist from the Institute of Organic and Physical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Kazan, in recent years, the scientists have developed dozens of drugs to help patients with muscular weakness to survive and not feel tired all the time. Most of these drugs inhibit AChE enzyme, which decomposes acetylcholine, a “signal of action” used by neurons to control the muscle cells.

The chemists and biologists from Kazan have developed C-547, a new molecule that can inhibit the action of AChE enzyme without inducing side effects as severe as in case of other drugs.

Unlike them, this substance interacts only with AChE and does not interfere with other enzymes that control the processes going in digestive and urinary organs.

The scientists tested new drug in rats and human bladder tissue samples. As it turned out, small doses of C-547 required to combat muscle weakness do not induce any changes in the bladder muscles. At the same time, pyridostigmine bromide, a standard “competitor” of the new drug, significantly increases the tonus and force of contraction of this organ’s walls.

In addition, the chemists from Kazan demonstrated that the effect of administering C-547 could be maintained for a long time (more than 72 hours). According to the authors of the article, these properties will make C-547 inhibitor one of the most promising drugs for combating symptoms of myasthenia.