国際貢献

抗感染症薬の発見による国際貢献

　北里生命科学研究所（現大村智記念研究所）初代所長?博狗体育在线_狗博体育直播【官方授权网站】@ 特別栄誉教授：大村智博士は、微生物が創る化合物を400種余り発見し、その中の17種がヒトや動物用の医薬品として、また生命現象を解明する生化学研究用の重要な薬として実用化されています。

　フィラリアなど線虫類用抗生物質を作り出す放線菌（図1）を、静岡県川奈の土壌から分離し、この物質を改良したものがイベルメクチンであり、犬や猫だけでなく家畜なども含めた動物向け駆虫薬として、またヒトの疥癬の薬として世界中で使われています。

　また、イベルメクチンは、患者の２割が失明するといわれる熱帯病のオンコセルカ症の特効薬として使われており、北里研究所と米国の製薬会社メルク社の無償提供により、WHOを通じアフリカや中南米の患者の治療、および感染防止に使用されています。現在のところ、本剤に耐性をもった線虫は発見されていないため、これら地域で劇的な予防?治療効果を挙げています。本剤は年間に7,000万人以上の人に投与され、感染（失明）の危険性が高い開発途上国における河川流域の発展に貢献しています。この成果を基に、WHOは本剤を用いて2025年までにオンコセルカ症を根絶する、という目標を立てています。

International Contribution Through The Discovery of an Anti-Infection Agent

　　 Prof. Satoshi Omura, inaugural Director of the Kitasato Institute for Life Sciences and Professor Emeritus of Kitasato University, has discovered over 400 novel bioactive compounds from microorganisms, devising innovative methods of isolation and cultivation in the process. Many have been developed as highly-effective drugs, human and veterinary medicines, as pesticides and agrochemicals, or used as important reagents in biochemical research to help elucidate various biological phenomena.

　　 In 1979, through a collaborative research project he established with the US-based private sector pharmaceutical company, Merck & Co., Inc., Prof. Omura discovered the world’s first ‘endectocide’, the novel and extremely effective anti-nematocidal compound, avermectin (isolated from the actinomycete, Streptomyces avermectinius, found in a soil sample collected at Kawana, Shizuoka Prefecture). Ivermectin, a dihydro-derivative of avermectin, is widely used around the world as an anthelmintic drug for animals and as a drug indicated for filarial diseases, strongyloidiasis and scabies in humans. Of greatest significance, ivermectin is being used as the mainstay of global campaigns to eliminate onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis (LF), two of the world’s most disfiguring and devastating tropical diseases. Donation of the drug by Merck & Co., Inc., with the support of the Kitasato Institute, has allowed the World Health Organization (WHO) and a large, innovative and interdisciplinary group of international partners from various sectors to distribute it free for as long as it is required to combat onchocerciasis and LF where the two diseases co-exist, mostly in Africa and Latin America. As well as maintaining its 25-year status as a globally-leading commercial animal health drug, ivermectin is being administered free to well over 70 million people annually. Using ivermectin as the key weapon, the WHO aims to eliminate both onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis as global public health problems by 2025, freeing billions of predominantly poverty-stricken people from the ravages of the diseases.

エバーメクチンを生産する放線菌　[Streptomyces avermectinius]
Streptomyces avermectinius, the only organism that has been found to produce the Avermectins

北里生命科学研究所棟前の像はエーバーメクチン発見25周年を記念して、ブルキナファソに建てられている像を現地の芸術家が再現して作成したものでオンコセルカ症の大人を杖で引いて歩く子供の像です。
A child using a cane to guide an adult who was been blinded by onchocerciasis, previously a common scene throughout Africa. These bronze figures, which stand in front of the Kitasato Institute for Life Sciences, are a replica of an iconic sculpture sited at the HQ of the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control in Burkina Faso. The statue was erected at the Kitasato Institute origin of Avermectin to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its discovery.

アフリカ視察中の大村博士、オンコセルカ症の恐怖から解き放たれた純粋な瞳の子供たちに囲まれて。
Prof. Omura during a tour of onchocerciasis-endemic areas in Africa, surrounded by children who received him with broad smiles, having been relieved of the risk of onchocerciasis thanks to his innovative research work, insight and humanitarian concern.