Kitasato University and Protosera Inc. Sign a Technology Partnership Agreement on Comprehensive Search for Receptors

Creating a Ligand/Receptor Database for a Wide Spectrum of Diseases and Development of Receptor Antagonists

Kitasato University and Protosera Inc., a consolidated subsidiary of USHIO INC., announce that both parties signed a technology partnership agreement on February 1 for the purpose of creating many new receptor drug candidates.

Receptor drugs have the highest efficacy and safety among molecularly targeted drugs, with a 60% market share (\30 trillion) in the global pharmaceutical market. A Kitasato University and Protosera Inc. research team demonstrated that the salusin-β receptor that exerts physiological effects, such as a hypotensive effect, is identical to the ATP synthase β-chain. The demonstration was accomplished using peptides, which were discovered and whose physiological effects were demonstrated by Kitasato University, and using a Membrane Protein Library (MPL) technology that is patented by Protosera Inc. The research results were published in a paper in December 2018.

The goal of the partnership is to develop receptor antagonists by comprehensively searching for receptors and creating a ligand/receptor database using the useful peptide library owned by Kitasato University, in conjunction with the technology of Protosera Inc., whose usefulness and efficiency were proven. With the increasing advancement of drug development techniques in biopharmaceutical development/therapy, gene therapy, molecular therapy, regeneration therapy, and immunity inhibitor therapy/development, it is becoming more and more difficult to discover drug development targets. We hope that the ligand/receptor database created for a wide spectrum of diseases will contribute to the development of future precision medicine.

*「Identification of the salusin-β receptor using proteoliposomes embedded with endogenous membrane proteins」
Scientific Reports;volume 8, Article number: 17865 (2018)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-35740-6


For further information, please contact:
Protosera Inc.  
E-Mail: info@protosera.co.jp

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