Clinical Trials
24
2 active
Approvals
0
Total approvals
Agencies
0
Regulatory bodies
Founded
1871
Active, not recruiting
1
4.2%
Completed
7
29.2%
Not yet recruiting
1
4.2%
Recruiting
4
16.7%
Terminated
1
4.2%
Unknown
10
41.7%
No approval data available
- A Nagoya University and Fujifilm team developed "Cap-cirRNA," a circular mRNA with a cap structure combining high translation efficiency with long-term stability. - The delivery system uses Fujifilm's ionizable lipid FL0445, achieving more than 10 times the intracellular transport efficiency of conventional lipid nanoparticles. - In obese mice, circular mRNA encoding GLP-1 produced prolonged protein expression, improved blood glucose control, and suppressed the inflammatory response. - The platform shows potential for cancer vaccines, genome editing, and replacement therapy for hereditary diseases, though clinical application remains distant.
- Researchers at Nagoya University identified orexin neurons in the brain as essential for sustaining motivated behavior, using a novel genetically modified "orexin-Cre" rat model. - Rats with activated orexin neurons showed higher breakpoints in progressive ratio tests, while those with degenerated orexin neurons exhibited significantly reduced motivation. - Suppressing orexin neuron activity via optogenetics impaired effort-based task performance, but artificially boosting activity beyond natural levels did not enhance motivation further. - The findings, published in PNAS, may inform future approaches to treating motivational deficits seen in depression, addiction, and ADHD.
- Researchers at Nagoya University found that complement C3 protein, when produced locally by fibroblasts inside tumors, limits the infiltration of immunosuppressive cells into the tumor microenvironment. - C3 circulating in the blood did not affect treatment outcomes; only tumor-local production shaped anti-tumor immunity and improved immunotherapy response. - In preclinical models, a drug blocking suppressive cell infiltration converted immunotherapy-resistant tumors into responsive ones, suggesting a new therapeutic strategy. - The findings, published in Nature Communications, point toward artificially recreating C3's local effect or combining suppressive cell blockade with standard-of-care immunotherapy.
- Japanese researchers developed a silver nanoparticle-based method that improves DNA assembly efficiency by two to five times compared with standard restriction enzyme approaches. - PEG-coated silver nanoparticles achieved over 91% DNA cleaving efficiency at 50°C within one to two hours, with DNA recovery rates rising from 14% to 98%. - The method successfully produced 8-base and 18-base sticky ends, with 18-base overhangs reaching 44% joining efficiency versus 8% for conventional 4-base overhangs. - The technique was validated in human HeLa cells, where assembled DNA encoding green fluorescent protein (GFP) was successfully expressed.
- Researchers have reported early clinical findings showing that stem cell therapy derived from human baby teeth (SHED) was well tolerated in children with cerebral palsy, with no serious adverse events reported. - Japanese scientists demonstrated for the first time in animal models that SHED therapy can improve motor and cognitive impairments even in the chronic phase of cerebral palsy, after motor deficits have already appeared. - The stem cells appear to work through neurotrophic and immunomodulatory properties, with preclinical studies showing they promote neural stem cell proliferation via hepatocyte growth factor secretion. - Nagoya University Hospital is currently conducting a clinical study to evaluate the safety and tolerability of autologous SHED in children with cerebral palsy, with plans for larger trials based on results.
- Elix and LINC have commercialized the world's first AI drug discovery platform incorporating federated learning models trained on data from 16 pharmaceutical companies, addressing the critical data scarcity challenge in AI drug discovery. - The platform leverages over 1 million compounds and 10 million data points through the kMoL federated learning library, enabling collaborative AI model development while preserving confidential pharmaceutical data. - The initiative emerged from Japan's AMED DAIIA project and includes AI models for on/off-target prediction, ADMET prediction, and molecular generation, with several pharmaceutical companies already adopting the Elix Discovery™ platform. - The commercialization represents a significant milestone in pharmaceutical AI, positioning the platform to become the de-facto standard for AI drug discovery in Japan while contributing to enhanced drug development capabilities globally.
- Fujitsu and Tokai National Higher Education and Research System (THERS) have completed successful field trials using generative AI to structure clinical data, achieving approximately 90% accuracy with 1,800 breast surgery patient records. - The AI-powered approach identified 42 potential clinical trial candidates with 27 being actually eligible, potentially reducing patient selection time by approximately one-third and accelerating clinical research processes. - This initiative directly addresses Japan's "drug loss" problem—the lack of availability of drugs used overseas due to stringent local approval requirements—by streamlining clinical trials and improving real-world data utilization.
