JST Top > Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development > Projects >

Research and Development of Therapeutic Products against Infectious Diseases, especially Dengue Virus Infection

Infectious Diseases Control

Kingdom of Thailand

Finished

Research and Development of Therapeutic Products against Infectious Diseases, especially Dengue Virus Infection

Creating Drugs Effective against the Dengue Virus from Human Beings

Principal Investigator

- Prof.
  IKUTA Kazuyoshi
  Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University

ODA Recipient Country

Kingdom of Thailand

Research Institutions in Japan

Osaka University

Research Institutions in Counterpart Country

National Institute of Health (NIH), Ministry of Public Health / Mahidol University (MU)

Adoption fiscal year

FY 2008

Research Period

4 Years

Overview of the Research Project

Finding candidate therapeutic agents for infectious diseases prevalent in Southeast Asia
Dengue fever is a viral disease spread by mosquitoes that infects 50 million people living in the tropics every year, with about 200,000 fatalities, but no effective therapies have yet been established. However, whenever someone is infected by a disease agent, his or her body makes proteins called antibodies. The key role of those antibodies is to control the symptoms of the disease and cure the patient. We are conducting research that involves taking antibodies from dengue fever patients that seem to be useful against the disease, and attempting to use them as medicine. At the same time, we are conducting similar research for influenza, which is a worldwide problem, and for the botulinum toxin, which is a problem in Thailand. We are also searching microorganisms prevalent in Thailand for compounds that are effective as a dengue fever treatment.

Conducting experiments to develop new drugs following the successful creation of antibodies
We have succeeded in creating many antibodies against the dengue virus, influenza virus and botulinum toxin. Many of those antibodies appear to be potentially effective as therapeutic agents. Next, we will perform more detailed evaluations, aiming for the development of new drugs.

Photo gallery

Using mice to assess the effectiveness of discovered antibodies

We have provided repeated training to transfer advanced Japanese technology for creating antibodies from the blood cells of Thai dengue patients to help develop possible therapies.