AMED-funded projects

Coffee drinking might be in your genes

Certain genetic variants exhibit associations with the eating and drinking habits of Japanese people

Nine gene locations that make a person more predisposed to consume certain foods (such as yogurt and fish) and beverages (including coffee and alcohol) have been identified in a genome-wide association study (GWAS).

GWAS have been extensively used to identify connections between gene variants and diseases. But until now they have not been used to determine the links between our genes and eating habits.

Now, in an AMED-funded study, Yukinori Okada of Osaka University and his co-workers have compared genetic data from more than 160,000 Japanese people with the consumption of 13 foods and drinks. From this comparison, they identified nine gene locations that had significant associations with the consumption of the foods and drinks. Ten of the associations they found had not been reported previously.

The researchers were surprised at how many gene variants were associated with consumption habits. “While some of these variants were previously known to be associated with drinking alcohol, we didn’t expect that so many of the variants would be associated with a wide range of dietary habits,” says Okada.

One gene variant was associated with many different food and drink preferences: people with a variation in a single DNA nucleotide at one specific gene were likely to consume more milk, yogurt, coffee and green tea but less alcohol, fish, tofu and fermented soybeans. “It was interesting that one variant at the ALDH2 gene affected so many dietary habits,” says Okada.

“Our study revealed that what we eat (in other words, our dietary habits) is defined by what we are (that is our, genetics),” he adds.

Antiviral-resistant influenza viruses are no less virulent

Resistance to an antiviral drug does not seem to put flu viruses at any disadvantage compared to their susceptible cousins

Influenza A viruses that are resistant to a new antiviral drug show no signs of being less active or transmissible than their non-resistant counterparts. This raises the spectre of the proliferation of antiviral-resistant strains of influenza A, unless multipronged strategies are employed.

The antiviral drug baloxavir marboxil (BXM) was approved for use in the USA and Japan in 2018. Unlike other antiviral drugs, BXM targets the polymerase acidic (PA) protein of influenza A and B viruses. However, influenza virus stains have been found that have reduced susceptibly to baloxavir acid (BXA), the active form of BXM, because they have a mutation in their PA gene. It was unclear how this mutation affects these mutant viruses’ pathogenicity and ability to spread.

Now, an AMED-funded study led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka and Masaki Imai, both of the University of Tokyo, has found that viruses with this mutation have similar pathogenicity and transmissibility as those without it.

The team isolated influenza A viruses with the mutation from patients in Japan and found that they grew just as well in cell culture as viruses lacking the mutation. The viruses also exhibited similar replicative abilities and pathogenicity in hamsters. Furthermore, they transmitted efficiently between ferrets via respiratory droplets.

These findings imply that the viruses with reduced susceptibility to BXA will not be at any significant disadvantage compared to BXA-susceptible viruses. “These findings suggest that the currently circulating seasonal influenza A viruses could maintain their viral fitness even though they have evolved to be less susceptible to BXA,” says Kawaoka. Combination treatments with multiple antiviral drugs may be needed.

Overcoming the final hurdle to bringing an eye treatment to patients

A procedure for repairing damage to the eyes is close to being cleared for use in Japan

Chie Sotozono of Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine and her team really wanted patients to benefit from a procedure they had developed for regenerating damaged corneas. Since the eye conditions are relatively rare, it proved to be very challenging to find a pharmaceutical company willing to invest in the procedure. Instead, she opted to conduct an investigator-initiated clinical trial herself with all the challenges that involved. But before she could embark on the trial, she had to secure the needed funding.

That funding, along with other sources of support, came from AMED. The grant enabled Sotozono’s team to conduct a trial on seven patients. She says the results have been very encouraging, and she hopes the treatment will be approved by Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency this fiscal year.

“Without AMED support, both financial and in other ways, we wouldn’t have been able to get this far,” says Sotozono.

The treatment, known as cultivated oral mucosal epithelial sheet transplantation (COMET), is for treating severe ocular-surface diseases. It involves taking cells from a person’s mouth, growing them in the lab and transplanting sheets of the cultivated cells onto the surface of the eye. COMET is unique in that both the mouth cells and the amniotic membrane they are cultivated on are grafted onto the patient’s eye. The membrane supplements loss of the existing membrane and its flexibility allows it to readily conform to the eye’s curved surface.