OREANDA-NEWS Russian scientists have discovered an easy way to synthesize selenium-containing heterocycles needed in the production of medical products. This is reported by the press service of the RNF.

The most important indicator of a drug, in addition to its main function, is its price. If the production of some active substance can be reduced in price several times, then drugs based on it can move to another class and become common from optional and rare. In this regard, scientists are continuously working to improve the process of drug synthesis or to replace the active substance with a cheaper full analogue.

Chemists of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia with Russian and foreign colleagues have discovered a new class of selenium-containing cyclic organic molecules obtained by the reaction of [3+2]-cycloaddition. Unlike analogues, the new reaction proceeds under mild conditions, in one "step" and is extremely effective — the product yield is approximately 96%.

Open selenium-containing molecules are similar to those used in existing anti-inflammatory and antioxidant drugs, such as ebselene, but they are much easier to obtain. Thus, ebselin is used in the treatment of completely different diseases — ranging from fungal, bacterial and viral infections (including COVID-19) to stroke and neuropsychiatric disorders. This similarity suggests that the new substances will also have a wide range of biological activity — scientists plan to find out in the course of further work.

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