Tools created at the Laboratory of Biomolecular Modelling IBCh RAS have been brought together into a computational framework to build a model of SARS-CoV-2 spike transmembrane domain (TMD).

Methods for inhibition of viral infection induced by spraying plants with preparations of specific double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) are currently being actively developed. Researchers from the Laboratory of functional genomics and plant proteomics, the Laboratory of Molecular Diagnostics and the Laboratory of Molecular Bases of Plant Stress Resistance of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry RAS studied the contribution of potato plant treatment with dsRNA against potato virus Y (dsRNA-PVY) to two dsRNA-induced plant defense mechanisms: specific RNA interference (RNAi) and non-specific pattern-triggered immunity (PTI).

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is one of the most lethal cancers worldwide. Sex-determining region Y-box protein 9 (SOX9) is upregulated in the majority of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cases. It is hypothesized that the increased expression of pancreatic developmental factor SOX9 is necessary for the formation and maintenance of tumor phenotypes in pancreatic cancer cells.

Both ganglioside GD2-specific immunotherapy and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), as a class of targeted drugs, have demonstrated clinical success as solid tumor therapies in recent years, yet practically no research has been carried out on ADCs directed to ganglioside GD2. In a new study, scientists from the Department of immunology at IBCh RAS in collaboration with colleagues from other Russian institutes for the first time show that clinically relevant anti-GD2 antibody-drug conjugates manifest potent and highly selective cytotoxicity in a wide panel of cell lines with varying GD2 expression and strongly inhibit tumor growth in mouse models of GD2-positive solid cancer.

Scientists from the Laboratory of biosynthesis of physiologically active compounds and Laboratory of biopharmaceutical technologies (IBCH RAS) and Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences synthesized a new series of flexible 5′-norcarbocyclic aza/deaza-purine nucleoside analogs and evaluated as potential inhibitors of E. coli purine nucleoside phosphorylase.

Scientists from the Group of molecular tools for living system studies (IBCh RAS), Department of chemistry of Natural Compounds (Faculty of Chemistry, MSU) and Osipyan Institute of Solid State Physics, together with the Laboratory of Molecular Design and Synthesis (IBCh RAS), have developed external SERS-active responsive elements based on positively charged black hole quencher (BHQ) derivatives.

Plant lignans are active components of many herbs, which makes them the research objects for therapeutic agents development for practical use. They provide diverse naturally-occurring pharmacophores, which allows them to interact with various enzymes, receptors, ion channels and signaling molecules.

A new structural group of antibiotics produced by a new strain Streptomyces sp. KMM 9044 was discovered as a result of teamwork of scientists from the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry (IBCh RAS) and the Elyakov Pacific Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry (TIBOCh RAS).

A team of scientists from the Laboratory of molecular bioengineering IBCh RAS together with the colleagues from other Russian Institutes bioinformatically predicted and recombinantly produced several different depolymerases encoded in the prophage regions of Acinetobacter baumannii genomes. For two depolymerases, the specificity to capsular polysaccharides (CPSs) of A. baumannii belonging to K1 and K92 capsular types (K types) was determined. These enzymes can be considered as suitable candidates for the development of new antibacterials against corresponding A. baumannii K types. 

A team of scientists from the Laboratory of molecular bioengineering IBCh RAS analysed 112 contractile phage tail sheath proteins (TShP) representing different groups of bacteriophages and archaeal viruses with myoviral morphology have been modelled with the novel machine learning software, AlphaFold 2. The common core domain of all studied sheath proteins, including viral and T6SS proteins, comprised both N-terminal and C-terminal parts, whereas the other parts consisted of one or several moderately conserved domains, presumably added during phage evolution.