(Newswire.net— September 23, 2020) — Scientists from the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy of the Federal University of the North Caucasus (NCFU) together with their American colleagues, while searching for a drug to combat the coronavirus, discovered substances that could potentially be used against neuroblastoma, Russia Today reports.
“The researchers described the synthesis of a substance which will help humankind to fight neuroblastoma, one of the most dangerous types of cancer,” the NCFU press service told news agency TASS on Tuesday.
“Initially, the chemists were trying to obtain the compounds to fight Covid-19; however, the anti-cancer activity of these substances turned out to be much higher,” the scientists said.
In the beginning, the chemists tried to get compounds for the fight against covid-19, however, the anti-cancer effect of these substances was far greater, TASS reported the announcement of the NCFU media cooperation service.
The research was conducted under the guidance of NCFU professors of organic and analytical chemistry, Nikolai Aksenov and Alexander Aksenov, together with the State University of Texas.
The method that was used in this research is called the Aksenov reaction and was discovered in 2010.
“[The reaction] is based on introducing an amine group to an aromatic substance and is very promising,” said Professor Alexander Aksenov
This development, as scientists noted, is of great importance for obtaining such compounds from available raw materials and will reduce the cost of therapy for patients suffering from this type of cancer.
Neuroblastoma is a malignant disease in which cancer cells form in the nervous tissue of the adrenal gland, nerve structures of the neck, chest or spinal cord.
The research was conducted within the grants of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research as well as the American National Institutes of Health, and was published in the journal Organic Biomolecular Chemistry.