Introduction of Professor Chikao Morimoto's research
Division of Immune Disease and Advanced Cancer Therapeutics
In the field of immune disease and cancer, antibodies, small molecular compounds, etc., have emerged as molecular targeted therapies showing moderate therapeutic effects, but these effects are still insufficient and are far from a complete cure. Because of this situation, the further development of new therapeutic drugs has been desired.
The research purpose of Dr. Chikao Morimoto et al. is the practice of translational research that connects basic experimental results to clinical applications (realization from bench to bed), especially in the area of immune disease and cancer. Dr. Morimoto was the first in the world to focus on multi-functional protein CD26 to develop monoclonal antibodies and isolate the cDNA. He also engaged in the molecular biological elucidation of the function and structure of CD26 and research on its clinical application, operating at the global leading edge in the study of CD26 molecules. In 2011, he was awarded as a highly-cited researcher in the field of immunology.
The development of high-quality humanized CD26 antibodies succeeded, and a phase I clinical trial on CD26 positive tumors including malignant pleural mesothelioma was performed in France. As a result, the safety was confirmed and data suggesting expected therapeutic effects were also obtained.
Based on this result, a phase I clinical trial for malignant pleural mesothelioma was started in Japan from June 2017 and went smoothly, with the scheduled administration completed by March 2018. Furthermore, we are planning to move ahead to a phase II clinical trial. Both in vitro and in vivo, this antibody has revealed good effects not only on malignant pleural mesothelioma, but also on renal cancer, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, and refractory immune disease, as well as allergic disease such as autoimmune disease and graft versus host disease.
We have carried out research ranging from basic research on cancer, immune disease and allergic disease to applied research, with a particular focus on the analysis of the function of CD26 molecules in immune cells and cancer cells, the analysis of the molecular action mechanism of CD26 antibodies, the molecular biological analysis of its associated molecules and CD26 ligands, the establishment of various in vivo disease models and the evaluation of the effectiveness of CD26 molecular targeted drugs, as well as the establishment of biomarkers.