Research that saves lives: markers of disease severity, drugs against COVID-19, and the role of molecular physiology

The idea of becoming a scientist crystallized when I was 14 years old. It was a challenging period for me — my grandfather was diagnosed with cancer. I got interested in pharmacological drugs and complex chemical formulas. I read many books about plant biochemistry and the search and development of medicines against serious diseases. Then I told my father that I wanted to work in science. He and the whole family supported me, even though biology was not popular back then.

At first, I planned to become a biochemist — I was interested in DNA, proteins, and molecules. But then I decided to enter the chemistry faculty. And only in the eleventh grade did I understand that biochemistry as a specialization is taught at the Faculty of Biology. In two months, I studied the biology program, passed the exam, and entered the biology faculty at the Taras Shevchenko National University.

“I was constantly looking for “my thing” – about getting into molecular physiology

The first two years were disappointing — I was not interested in botany, zoology and even virology. The only thing that kept me going during that period was a considerable amount of chemistry classes: organic, inorganic, analytical, physical and colloidal, bio-chemistry. I really liked it. After the second year, we were divided into departments, and my relationship with the biochemistry teacher turned out to be pretty bad. So I decided to choose the genetics department — that’s where my real scientific life began.

In the third year of studies, I immediately started working in the laboratory and changed many of them as a student — I was constantly looking for “my thing”. For a certain period, I wanted to work with prenatal diagnostics — it allows to take material from embryos and conduct various studies. Therefore, for some time, I worked at the Institute of Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology — there, I developed placenta cultivation methods to obtain more research material.

While doing my Master’s degree, I got into the Institute of Physiology, where I met my first supervisor, Yevhen Moiseienko. A little later, I also met Viktor Dosenko, who guided me through my Master’s project. I believe that it was thanks to him that my scientific career was launched at the initial stage — and a year after the dissertation project, I moved to work in the department of Viktor Evheniiovych.

“When resources or drugs are limited, you need something to guide you”: about universal markers of COVID-19 severity

Last year, together with the team, we studied markers of the COVID-19 severity that would predict the tendency to complications among risk group patients — people suffering from diabetes, obesity, hypertension, etc.

The first marker is related to the fact that a specific class of immune cells in the blood — neutrophils — explode when confronted with an inflammatory process and start releasing their DNA. Accordingly, the more neutrophils explode, the more free extracellular DNA is in the blood, which can affect a wide range of receptors, and activate inflammation, thrombosis and secondary alteration — that is, attract additional cellular elements to the place where it was formed.

The more neutrophils DNA in the blood, the worse the course of the disease. Such people need to be identified in the first place — they need to be given more attention: start oxygen support earlier and give hormones that suppress the activation of their immunity.

The second marker of severity is related to the level of hyaluronic acid in the blood. Hyaluronic acid molecules are formed during Covid in lung tissues. They can hold a large amount of water. It looks like the so-called “frosted glass” areas on computer tomography. Hyaluronic acid also has receptors, and its activation increases inflammatory processes and thrombosis.

We measured the level of hyaluronic acid in the blood plasma and correlated it with the degree of severity — we found this is also a rather reliable marker.

Also, these markers of severity can be used for other diseases to assess the risk status of the person — when resources or drugs are limited, you need something to guide you.

“We could not continue the research in Kyiv — while working on modelling and treatment of diseases on animal models, you need to adhere to a certain schedule, which became impossible due to constant air raid alerts”

Two years ago, we won two grants from the National Research Foundation to study acute respiratory distress syndrome, a lung complication that accompanies Covid for the most severely ill patients. In such cases, the level of oxygen supply in the body drops, and artificial ventilation is necessary. Actually, most often, people die from Covid precisely from breathing problems.

One of our projects concerned developing and testing on animals of substances that could become potential drugs against Covid and several other respiratory diseases. We worked on this together with colleagues from the Institute of Molecular Biology. They used bioinformatics methods to select substances that could potentially affect our cells’ enzyme called protein kinase C Beta. And we have already tested such substances on blood and animals — simulated lung damage, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and tried to treat it.

We managed to select four potentially valuable molecules. We tested two of them on animals — we just finished at the end of last year, submitted a report and finished this NFD project. At the stage of a new series of research and new series of substances testing, a full-scale Russian invasion began. We couldn’t continue our research in Kyiv — modelling and treating diseases on animals takes a certain amount of time, and you need to work with such things on a fixed schedule. Work became impossible due to constant air raid alerts.

We accepted a colleague’s offer, the German professor Arturo Zychlinsky. We moved to Berlin to work as an independent part of the laboratory of cellular microbiology at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology. We are now continuing the research that we started in Ukraine.

I think that after our victory, we have a pretty good chance to quickly restore the infrastructure, get cool grants and raise the level of science and education. I believe that in a year in Berlin, I will gain experience and return to Ukraine to work for the restoration of science in Ukraine.

“There is no future without two things — education and science”

Most of the research in Ukraine is financed from the state budget — every year, during its formation, a certain percentage of money is allocated to science. If the deputies who vote for it do not see the value in supporting science, the money is directed to other areas. Therefore, it is necessary to tell in simple, accessible language what science really is, so that it inspires people.

When the first russian attack on Ukraine began in 2014, our institute received a request from the Ministry of Defence to create a Ukrainian haemostat, because European and American haemostats cost about 40-60 euros per unit. We quickly developed an animal model of blood loss, and conducted efficacy and safety studies. Now Ukrainian haemostatics “Krovospas” are present in almost every first-aid kit. 

This is a direct example of how science can help people in a quick leap into practice. But this is not always the case with science. For example, 50 years ago, no one would have known the properties of this particular molecule to stop bleeding — since then, a tremendous amount of research has been conducted in this direction.

When it comes to basic research, the practical benefits may not be immediately apparent to ordinary people. Schools, universities, and the media must tell how such research is useful and why there is no future without science and education. And this is no less important than working on scientific projects.