Creator of the concept of antihypoxants and actoprotectors: On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Professor V.M. Vinogradov

Abstract

Vasiliy M. Vinogradov (1924–2003) and his scientific school are famous for their creation and study of two fundamental new classes of pharmacological drugs, promising for military medicine, medicine for disasters and extreme conditions, and for civilian healthcare. This refers to the development of antihypoxants, which are drugs that protect the body when there is a lack of oxygen in the cells or disturbances in its utilization, and actoprotectors (from the Latin “actus” — movement), which are drugs of a nondepleting type of action that increase and maintain the physical performance of the body in unfavorable conditions. At the Department of Pharmacology of the Military Medical Academy in the 1960s, F.Yu. Rachinsky synthesized the first highly effective antihypoxants structurally related to aliphatic and cyclic aminothiols — gutimin, amtizole, bemitil, almid, and etomerzole. Hypoxia is the most common, everyday factor in resuscitation practice; however, it is not the only factor causing energy deficiency with severe, often dramatic consequences for cells, organs, and the body as a whole. Therefore, when we talk about antihypoxants, we are referring to drugs that can smooth out this deficiency using various mechanisms, protect cells at the reversible stage of their damage, and activate the formation of structure and functions. These drugs were subjected to a detailed pharmacological study, and a key link in their mechanism of action was identified — normalization of energy metabolism when there is a lack of oxygen in cells or disturbances in their use. All aliphatic and cyclic aminothiols (gutimin, amtizole, bemitil, almid, etomerzol, and many of their analogs) have three main types of activity, which are expressed differently in each of the drugs, which makes it possible to profile their use in different clinical situations and in healthy people. These include (1) antihypoxic effects, (2) antioxidant effects, and (3) ability to accelerate the repair and adaptive synthesis of RNA, enzymes, and functional and structural proteins under various types of damage, such as hypoxic, infectious, toxic, and stress, and in adaptation to complicated conditions. All these directions were not only evaluated experimentally but also confirmed in practice. This article examines various aspects of antihypoxic drugs synthesized and studied at the Department of Pharmacology of the S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy for the last 60 years.