Medicine for Fatty Liver
A South Korean research team succeeded in developing a new drug candidate using natural substances in grapes and beans that can contain a fatty liver and neutral lipid levels in the blood.
The Korea Food Research Institute announced on June 19 that the metabolic disease research team led by Dr. Choi Sang-yoon developed a new substance that can curb the levels of fatty liver and neutral lipid in the blood by modifying the chemical structure of “resveratrol” and “genistein,” which are natural substances that prevents adipogenesis.
The team extracted derivatives, which have high activity and safety and are easy to combine, from resveratrol in grapes and peanuts and genistein in beans. It tested the new drug candidate dubbed “NED240” on experimental rats for 12 weeks and succeeded in reducing the weight of fatty liver by 86 percent. It also passed all the toxicity tests, proving the safety. In addition, “NED278,” a new drug candidate which lowered the level of neutral fat in the blood, showed the effectiveness in inhibiting the increase of neutral fat concentrations in the blood of a high-fat diet experimental group by 178 percent through experiments with mice. The group even had lower fat levels in the blood than a regular diet control group.
Currently, the research team is working together with Seoul National University College of Pharmacy and planning to carry out a follow-up study to develop and commercialize new drugs after obtaining related patents.
Dr. Choi Sang-yoon said, “The new substances are easy to combine with other materials and chemically stable. So, they are not only economically feasible but also highly active. In addition, they are highly likely to be developed into new drugs as they passed all the toxicity tests which are perfectly safe. We will seek for a partnering pharmaceutical company by the end of this year and conduct clinical trials for commercialization.”