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Nitto Denko Develops Polymer Carrier for siRNA Delivery System
Joint R&D with Japanese Medical Research Team Offers Hope for Cirrhosis Cure
4.3.2008
Biodegradable polymer developed by Japan’s leading diversified materials company Nitto Denko Corporation (Nitto Denko) has been demonstrated as being applicable to the technology for treating liver cirrhosis, the company announced today.
The results of experiments on rats applying the actual technology for cirrhosis treatment, was published on March 30 by a research team of Sapporo Medical University (SMU) Japan, led by Prof. Yoshiro Niitsu, Chief of Fourth Department of Internal Medicine, Sapporo Medical University, School of Medicine. The findings were published in the April 2008 issue of the international scientific journal “Nature Biotechnology”.
Instead of employing liposome which is low in research efficiency and difficult to produce industrially, the SMU research team used as the carrier the biodegradable polymer being developed by Nitto Denko. The vitamin A – coupled carrier was used to successfully deliver to the affected site a molecule called “synthetic small interfering RNA” (siRNA) which inhibits the function of genes promoting the production of collagen, the cause of cirrhosis.
The biodegradable polymer carrier in question is actually being developed by Nitto Denko’s wholly owned American R&D subsidiary Nitto Denko Technical Corporation (NDT) located in Oceanside, California, based on polymer synthesis which is a part of Nitto Denko’s technology platform. NDT will continue its joint R&D with Prof. Niitsu’s team, together with Nitto Denko’s Corporate Business Development Dept.
Nitto Denko intends to contribute to society by applying its business development capability as well as its polymer synthesis expertise nurtured in the fields of electronic materials such as optical films for liquid crystal displays and industrial materials, to expand into gene therapy drugs from now on, ultimately to achieve commercialization.
Background of Technical Development
Being strong in the field of transdermal drug delivery technology, Nitto Denko holds large market shares in skin patches for the bronchodilator to treat asthma and for the medication against cardiac angina. And having added to its Medical-related business in 2003 a company called Aveva Drug Delivery Systems (formerly Elan Transdermal Technologies), a transdermal drug delivery patch manufacturer located in Florida, Nitto Denko looks forward to actively engaging in the manufacture and sale of transdermal patches in the U.S.
The technology being developed by Nitto Denko this time is a polymer carrier technology based on a biodegradable polymer, and is different from transdermal drug delivery. Having also developed earlier a gene delivery reagent based on a biodegradable cationic polymer using biodegradable polymers, Nitto Denko has been doing extensive bio-related materials research by applying its expertise in polymer technologies.
With the anticipation that the polymer carrier technology this time would become the core of its new technology portfolio together with transdermal drug delivery, Nitto Denko intends to actively continue with its R&D in this field going forward.
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