Anatoly Ernestovich Sharpenak (; 1895 in Moscow, Russia – 1969 in Moscow, Soviet Union) was a Russian Empire and Soviet biochemist, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor. Author of one of the dental caries theories named after him.
Biography
A. E. Sharpenak was born into a family of Baltic Germans which was quite wealthy, settled in Russia, and living in the area of German settlement (German Quarter). He graduated from a good private school and then university.
During the Russian Civil War he served as a doctor on a hospital train.
In 1920 he worked under the direction of ) in the newly created Biochemical Institute.
In 1939 he organized a biochemical department at the Moscow Stomatological Institute (now Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry). He was the chair of this department until 1969.
While heading the department at the Moscow Stomatological Institute, he also held the following positions: From 1945 to 1969, Head of the Laboratory of Protein Metabolism Institute of Nutrition, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (now the Laboratory of metabolism and energy of the Federal government agency "Scientific Research Institute of Nutrition, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. From 1959 to 1969, Head of the Biochemical Laboratory at the City Clinical Hospital named after S.P. Botkin (Botkin Hospital).
A. E. Sharpenak died in January 1969 of complications from influenza. He was buried at the Preobrazhenskoye Cemetery in Moscow.
Scientific activities
One of the first works of the Biochemical Institute, under the leadership of A.N. Bach in 1920, was the creation of a new method for determination of enzyme levels. The lack of accurate microscopic methods that require minimal amounts of blood at the time made it impossible to explore the work of enzymes in normal and pathological conditions systematically. A method that was devised and later received the name of the Bach-Zubkova method allowed work with one mm3 of blood (one drop of blood, approximately the size of a small pin head). At the request of the Institute ten special calorimeters were built, which were provided to hospitals for systematic studies.
A.E. Sharpenak pointed out that the diet should take into account not only the total protein content, but also the content of individual amino acids. The effect of protein quality of the diet on the body depends not only on the absolute content of individual amino acids in the diet, but also on the balance between them.
He authored more than 150 scientific papers, including university textbooks on organic and biological chemistry. He supervised 11 Ph.D. theses.
Sharpenak’s theory of dental caries
As head of the Department of Biochemistry at Moscow Stomatological Institute, Professor A.E. Sharpenak tackled one of the major problems of dentistry, namely, the etiology and pathogenesis of dental caries.
During the 1940s V.R. Bobyleva, L.A. Gorozhankina, E.V. Aleksandrova, N.P. Dzichkovskaya, N.V. Nikolaeva and I.I. Grachev carried out a large amount of experimental work on the etiology of dental caries under his leadership.
In 1949, after numerous experiments, Sharpenak proposed that dental caries was due to insufficient supply in the organs and tissues protein of B vitamins, and an excess of carbohydrates.