Professor P.P. Denisenko and his school: a scientific biography and personal recollections

Pyotr Prokofyevich Denisenko (1923–2011) was a distinguished Russian pharmacologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, and Honored Scientist of the RSFSR. A veteran of the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945), he was awarded with 11 military honors. For 26 years (1963–1989), he served as the head of the Department of Pharmacology at the Sanitary and Hygienic State Medical Institute of the Ministry of Health of the RSFSR. He is widely recognized for his pioneering research on synaptic transmission pharmacology and the cholinergic mechanisms regulating bodily functions. Denisenko authored groundbreaking studies and monographs, including Gangliolytics (1959), Central Cholinolytics (1965), and The Role of Cholinoreactive Systems in Regulatory Processes (1980). He mentored a generation of Russian pharmacologists, supervising 28 doctoral and 127 candidate dissertations. Denisenko played a direct role in the development of numerous pharmaceuticals, including ganglioblockers (benzhexonium), central cholinolytics (metamizil), anxiolytics (tarden), anti-ischemic agents (etmaben), antiviral drugs (mixovirin), anti-shock agents (mizidol), burn and wound healing treatments (bathizin, santoparin), hepatoprotectors (geranol, polyen, sinabet), peptic ulcer treatments (benzhexonium, labaznik, polyen), antihypoxants (isothiormin), antioxidants (violuric acid), and disinfectants (aquabor). Additionally, he provided the first detailed pharmacological characterization of the natural product mumiyo.