New Paradigm of Fibrosis
“Nearly 45% of all deaths in the developed world are attributable to fibroproliferative diseases (TA Wynn)” probably due to the change of lifestyle in the 21st century. Fibrosis traditionally represents the final common pathway of virtually all-chronic diseases in various organs, but is now considered as one phenotype of the “on-going” host defense response of tissue remodeling. Based on this recent idea, two distinct hits are attributed in the development of fibrosis. Following tissue injury (1st hit induced by self or non-self component), the host defense system’s inflammation and immunity reaction occurs rapidly to clean up the causative agents and restore the damaged tissue. During the remodeling phase, however, persistent inflammation (2nd hit) leads to chronic fibroblast activation, which promotes the formation of fibrotic tissue instead of restoring normal tissue architecture. Age-related complications in all tissues are also included, making the anti-fibrotic drug-market significantly large. Stelic Institute & Co. considers that fibrosis-associated diseases are broken down into two categories, which each require distinct treatments during a patient’s life
Two categories of fibrosis-associated diseases
Despite extensive research, the development of effective anti-fibrotic drugs are still a challenge. Several key factors are involved:
- The need for winning drug targets
- Need for non-invasive, quantitative assay to estimate the degree and prognosis of fibrosis.
Innovation is needed in all processes of research and development (R&D).
To answer these points, Stelic Institute & Co. provides:
- Glycogenes as an effective drug targets
- Translational research-related technology, which brings quantitative endpoints into clinical trials.
Our technology platform contributes to the modularization of the R&D process for anti-fibrosis therapeutics.
