Advantages

- High specificity. Does not react with fibrosis caused by other types of hepatitis.
- Can be detected using blood samples and simple kits.

Background and Technology

Patents

- Patent pending in Japan, the United States, and China (Publication number: WO2021/010349)

Principal Investigator

Naoya Sakamoto (Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering Faculty of Medicine, Hokkaido University)

Current Stage and Next Step

- To date, we have developed a prototype kit to detect A2F bisect glycans and their precursor glycans bound to IgA protein in the blood and have evaluated over 100 blood samples from MASH patients. As a result, we have confirmed high diagnostic performance.
- A research project supported by AMED (Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development) is underway. We will continue to improve the measurement kit, increase its accuracy, and clarify its mechanism.
- We are currently seeking partner companies to develop a measurement kit and develop in vitro diagnostics with the aim of having the diagnostic drug covered by insurance.
Project.BK-04714