{"title":"[Make the invisible visible-innovation in the single fluorescent protein-based indicators].","authors":"Marie Mita, Tetsuya Kitaguchi","doi":"10.1254/fpj.23067","DOIUrl":"10.1254/fpj.23067","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Biological phenomena are generated by the cooperative and hierarchical relationships between a variety of biomolecules, such as proteins, metabolites, signaling molecules, and ions. In many cases, however, these biomolecules do not have color, and it is difficult to observe them as they are. Therefore, it is necessary to \"visualize\" each molecule with color or fluorescence, and to analyze the functional relationships between them. The live cell imaging technology using single fluorescent protein (FP)-based indicators has contributed to the visualization of biomolecules. Single FP-based indicators, which change their fluorescence intensity upon binding to the target molecule, have been revolutionized into multicolor indicators by a series of innovative screening methods. On the other hand, we have established an original screening method using semi-rational molecular design and molecular evolution, and have developed many single FP-based indicators for various molecules such as cAMP and glucose. In this article, we focus on single FP-based indicators and introduce their development strategy and the history of screening method.</p>","PeriodicalId":12208,"journal":{"name":"Folia Pharmacologica Japonica","volume":"159 1","pages":"13-17"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139086527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[Omics and cell controlling technology for drug discovery].","authors":"Masakazu Fukuda, Hiroki Danno","doi":"10.1254/fpj.23098","DOIUrl":"10.1254/fpj.23098","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Knowledge Palette, Inc. is a start-up company that aims to overcome incurable diseases by applying the world's most accurate single-cell level and bulk level transcriptome technology to obtain large-scale data on the state of cells treated with various types of drugs and media, and using this information to highly control cells for improving human health. We are working on new phenotypic drug discovery and higher quality cells for regenerative medicine using big data. As one of its core technologies, the company is utilizing a single-cell-level whole gene expression analysis technology, Quartz-Seq2, which was originally developed in RIKEN. This technology received first place in accuracy of genes detection as well as marker identification, and was ranked No. 1 in overall score in the benchmarking in the international Human Cell Atlas project. By applying this technology to the bulk level analysis of ultra-multiple samples, it has enabled drug screening, analysis of human clinical specimens, and evaluation of numerous culture environments in a high-throughput way. This paper presents an omics-driven drug discovery and cell regulation approach that is combined with large-scale data and artificial intelligence technology.</p>","PeriodicalId":12208,"journal":{"name":"Folia Pharmacologica Japonica","volume":"159 1","pages":"48-52"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139086530","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[Molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of septic multiple organ failure].","authors":"Naoyuki Matsuda, Takuji Machida, Yuichi Hattori","doi":"10.1254/fpj.23109","DOIUrl":"10.1254/fpj.23109","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sepsis is defined as the body's overwhelming and life-threatening response to infection that can lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death. Since bacterial infection is one of the main causes of sepsis, appropriate antimicrobial therapy remains the cornerstone of sepsis and septic shock management. However, since sepsis is a multifaceted chaos involving inflammation and anti-inflammation disbalance leading to the unregulated widespread release of inflammatory mediators, cytokines, and pathogen-related molecules leading to system-wide organ dysfunction, the whole body control to prevent the progression of organ dysfunction is needed. In sepsis and septic shock, pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), such as bacterial exotoxins, cause direct cellular damage and/or trigger an immune response in the host. PAMPs are recognized by pattern recognizing receptors (PRRs) expressed on immune-reactive cells. PRRs are also activated by host nuclear, mitochondrial, and cytosolic proteins, known as damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) that are released from cells during sepsis. Thus, most PRRs respond to PAMPs or DAMPs by triggering activation of transcriptional factors, NF-κB, AP1, and STAT-3. On the other hand, sepsis leads to immune (lymphocytes and macrophages) and nonimmune (endothelial and epithelial cells) cell death. Apoptosis has been the major focus of research on cell death in sepsis, but autophagy, necrosis, necroptosis, pyroptosis, NETosis, and ferroptosis may also play an important role in this critical situation. The recent development in our understanding regarding the cellular pathogenesis of sepsis will help in developing new treatment of sepsis.</p>","PeriodicalId":12208,"journal":{"name":"Folia Pharmacologica Japonica","volume":"159 2","pages":"101-106"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140021328","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[Up-to-Date on clinical and preclinical studies of psilocybin therapy].","authors":"Daisuke Ibi","doi":"10.1254/fpj.24007","DOIUrl":"10.1254/fpj.24007","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) poses a significant global health burden, with 30-40% patients developing resistance to standard clinical antidepressants, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and tricyclic antidepressants. In 2016, Carhart-Harris and colleagues reported that psilocybin, the hallucinogenic compound derived from magic mushrooms, exhibits rapid and enduring antidepressant effects in patients with treatment-resistant depression. Subsequent clinical studies have found the therapeutic potential of psilocybin in MDD, depressive episode in bipolar disorder, anorexia, and drug addiction. In 2018 and 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration designated psilocybin as a \"breakthrough medicine\" for treatment-resistant depression and MDD, respectively. Notably, the side effects of psilocybin are limited to transient and mild issues, such as headache and fatigue, suggesting its safety. In 2023, we published a review on the role of serotonin 5-HT<sub>2A</sub> receptors in the antidepressant effects of serotonergic psychedelics (Nihon Yakurigaku Zasshi, Volume 158, Issue 3, Page 229-232). Here, we present our study alongside the latest clinical and preclinical research on the antidepressant effects of psilocybin and provide an overview of the potential and issues related to psilocybin therapy.</p>","PeriodicalId":12208,"journal":{"name":"Folia Pharmacologica Japonica","volume":"159 4","pages":"214-218"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141467239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[Current and future medical treatment for endometriosis].","authors":"Masayo Hosokawa, Fuminori Taniguchi","doi":"10.1254/fpj.24014","DOIUrl":"10.1254/fpj.24014","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Endometriosis is a chronic, progressive inflammatory disease that occurs in approximately 10% of women of reproductive age, resulting in a decreased quality of life due to dysmenorrhea, chronic pain, and other problems. The primary treatment is pain control and fertility preservation, and while preserving ovarian function through drug therapy and surgery, assisted reproductive technology (ART), including in vitro fertilization (IVF), is also utilized. Hormonal therapies such as low-dose estrogen/progestin (LEP), progestins, and GnRH analogs are often the drug of choice. We presented that IAP (inhibitor of apoptotic protein) inhibitors can potentially be novel agents for treating endometriosis. Our studies using cultured cells derived from human endometriotic lesions and mouse models have revealed that inflammatory cytokines and antiapoptotic factors (IAPs) produced by peritoneal macrophages or endometriosis cells are crucial and that NF-κB (nuclear factor-kappa B) plays a central role in the pathogenesis of endometriosis. The high expression of IAPs in human endometriotic tissues, its facilitative role in ectopic survival, and the effect of IAPs on drug-resistant apoptosis of human endometriotic cells indicate its potential as a novel drug for IAP inhibitors. We found that the medicinal herb parthenolide and selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERM) can reduce lesions through NF-κB inhibition. Recently, new findings were obtained by non-invasive observation of early lesions using bioluminescence technology and by applying knockout mouse models. We will show the possibility of new therapeutic agents for endometriosis.</p>","PeriodicalId":12208,"journal":{"name":"Folia Pharmacologica Japonica","volume":"159 6","pages":"368-373"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142575585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[Application of human-derived samples in preclinical research].","authors":"Hiroshi Yukitake","doi":"10.1254/fpj.24023","DOIUrl":"10.1254/fpj.24023","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Drug discovery research takes many years and tons of effort, and the success rate is extremely low. In order to overcome this situation, pharmaceutical companies struggle to improve the probability of success drug research and development with multiple approaches. Recently, it is important to predict the clinical effects of the candidates as early as possible in drug discovery stage, to stratify patients with diseases, and to provide appropriate readouts for evaluation of pharmacological efficacy for increasing the success rate. In this environment, the importance of non-clinical research that actively utilizes human-derived samples including patient-derived samples is increasing. In this article, author describes the use of human-derived samples in non-clinical research, especially focusing on the utilization of induced pluripotent stem cells. Human-derived samples are valuable experimental materials that have, at least in part, human-specific characteristics that experimental animals do not possess. In particular, patient-derived samples are thought to have the genetic predisposition and at least some disease characteristics that cause the disease, and are useful from the perspective of elucidating the pathogenesis, disease modeling, and predictability of clinical effects. This is also valuable for drug discovery research in diseases that are difficult to reproduce in experimental animals such as mice. Whereas, human-derived samples have some limitations, and we need ethical procedures and consideration when researchers use them. Author will provide an overview of the use of human-derived samples in non-clinical research based on the perspectives as described above and introduce our research group cases, and future research prospects using them.</p>","PeriodicalId":12208,"journal":{"name":"Folia Pharmacologica Japonica","volume":"159 5","pages":"290-294"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142105886","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[A capability to promote the utilization of human samples for improving the clinical response predictability in the pharmaceutical company].","authors":"Risa Okimoto, Takao Fujimura, Kayoko Mihara","doi":"10.1254/fpj.23063","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1254/fpj.23063","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>An issue in drug discovery research at pharmaceutical companies is the decline in the probability of market launch, and there is a need to improve the proof-of-concept (POC) acquisition rate by further improving clinical predictability. For this purpose, we need to deepen our understanding of human pathophysiology, and to make efficient of drug discovery research by utilizing human samples and data due to the change in mindset from \"animals\" to \"humans\" at the drug discovery research stage. In particular, with the aim of improving the efficiency of drug discovery research by utilizing human samples/data, we have established a human sample utilization support capability, then we are supporting the acquisition of appropriate human samples/data to meet each drug research need with collecting information on organizations that can provide various human samples and accumulating know-how on obtaining human samples/data. In addition, we have built a one-stop support system for surveying human samples/data, negotiating, and contracting with the organizations, obtaining ethical committee approvals, importing samples, and dealing with customs clearance. As results, our researchers can obtain high-quality human samples/data to meet their research needs rapidly/easily. By establishing this capability, the number of the research projects that implement target validation, pharmacological evaluation, BM identification, and patient stratification, etc. using human samples/data from the early stage of drug discovery, has increased, and then, the evidence obtained by using human samples/data contribute to create drug candidates with high probability of clinical effect. We will introduce our activities while showing the support flow that was actually constructed.</p>","PeriodicalId":12208,"journal":{"name":"Folia Pharmacologica Japonica","volume":"159 5","pages":"300-303"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142105885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}