Kumamoto University
- Academic, tech transfer
- Institute, hospital research
In 2020, I became Professor at the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Kumamoto University. Founded in 1949, the university traces its roots to the 18th century and has over 120,000 graduates active worldwide. Our recent research, under a national AMED project, focuses on HBV drug discovery. Current therapies suppress HBV but rarely achieve a functional cure. We reported (Watanabe T, Hayashi S, Tanaka Y, et al. J Gastroenterol 2024) that SAG-524, a novel, orally bioavailable 4-pyridone compound, potently inhibits HBV replication (IC50HBV-DNA = 0.92 nM; IC50HBsAg = 1.4 nM) by destabilizing HBV RNA via PAPD5. In HBV-infected human-liver-chimeric mice, SAG-524 reduced HBsAg and HBcrAg at 6 mg/kg/day and showed synergy with entecavir. In monkeys, doses up to 1000 mg/kg/day showed no significant toxicity. SAG-524 may contribute to a functional cure for HBV.
Address
KumamotoNot required for this country
Japan
)
)
)
)
){kind=logo}
){kind=logo}
)
){kind=logo}
)
){kind=logo}