Cats’ lifespan can be extended to 30 years! The “reason” why a former professor of the University of Tokyo was able to develop a groundbreaking drug | FRIDAY DIGITAL

Cats’ lifespan can be extended to 30 years! The “reason” why a former professor of the University of Tokyo was able to develop a groundbreaking drug

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The life span of a domesticated cat in Japan is about 15 years at most. However, cat lovers all over Japan have reacted to a major discovery that overturns this established theory! Dr. Toru Miyazaki, the developer of this dream drug, tells us the whole story of this new drug and its future PHOTO: TEN

In no time at all, a huge amount of money was donated…and cat lovers were very enthusiastic!

I was surprised. Since the night the article was published Since the night the article was published, donations have been pouring in. The next day, donations amounted to tens of millions of yen.

Dr. Toru Miyazaki, director of the AIM Medical Research Institute, who is researching a drug to extend the life of cats, shared his surprise at the time. It was July ’21 when a small article about the research was published. Cat lovers from all over Japan made donations one after another, saying, “Help us with our research! and donated money one after another.

The life span of a domesticated cat is said to be 12 to 15 years, and kidney disease is a major cause of death. There is a reason why kidney disease is so common among cats. A substance called “AIM” in the body is not “working,” unlike other living creatures such as humans and dogs, and this causes a burden on the kidneys.

Dr. Miyazaki discovered this fact through a number of coincidences and proceeded to develop a therapeutic drug for feline kidney disease. However, in the summer of 2009, due in part to the COVID-19 crisis, the company that had been cooperating with him until then cut off funding. Just then, the media reported their predicament as “developing a drug for cats. The news spread quickly on social networking services, and cat lovers all over Japan thought, “Let’s donate ourselves. However, they did not know where to make their donations. One person learned of the existence of a “fund” at the University of Tokyo, where Dr. Miyazaki’s laboratory was located at the time, and suggested that they could send a note to “Dr. Miyazaki” here. In the end, the donations from about 20,000 people amounted to about 300 million yen.

The life span of a cat can be extended to 30 years!

This substance called AIM is like a “seal” to dispose of waste in the body.

The cells in our body are replaced by new ones every day. In this process, various “garbage,” such as dead cells and broken proteins that are expelled from the dead cells, are replaced by new ones every day. In this process, various kinds of “garbage” such as dead cells and broken proteins that are discharged from the dead cells must be eliminated (cleaned). At this point, an important role is played by AIM plays an important role in this process. AIM is like a sticker that is affixed to bulky trash, and when it finds trash in the body, it sends AIM sticks to the garbage, and the AIM is used as a marker, macrophages, a type of immune cell, catches the garbage, eats it, and cleans it up.

However, AIM does not work well in feline animals. As a result, the debris accumulates in the kidneys, leading to kidney disease and death.

“There are two ways to resolve this condition: one is to inject, for example, from the outside AIM in from the outside, such as by injection. The other is to inject AIM into the cat’s kidneys, which it already has. AIM that cats originally have. This AIM and there are cat treats and dry foods on the market that contain this ingredient.

Products such as AIM30 were in short supply for a while. However, these foods and treats are supplements and can only work with a few percent of the cat’s own AIM.

But they can only work on a few percent of the cat’s own AIM,” he said. But for cats that have accumulated a lot of litter and have advanced kidney disease, you have to inject a lot ofAIMfrom the outsideto clean up the litter properly. We are currently developing an injectable drug for this purpose.

The investigational drug is almost ready, and they hope to complete it by around the year 2013.

When this drug is completed, I think it will greatly increase the life span of cats,” he said. The life expectancy of cats has been reduced to 15 years old due to kidney disease, AIM formulation would increase the life expectancy of the cat by 30 years, then maybe with the AIM formulation we could extend that to 30 years.”

But wouldn’t that injection be expensive considering the cost of new drug research?

No. Since we have received so much support from cat lovers, we would like to make it available to children everywhere.

A drug for humans is also under development. It is also effective for the aftereffects of cerebral infarction!

Dr. Miyazaki graduated from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine, but he did not originally intend to become a doctor.

His parents’ home was in 150 years old wholesaler of medicines. My family has been a wholesaler of medicines for 150 years, so I was going to study pharmacy and take over the family business,” he says.

However, at his father’s urging, he decided to change course to medical school. After graduation, he became a clinician.

I was a good doctor (laughs). But when I was in the medical field, I was shocked to find that there were many diseases that could not be cured. That’s when I decided to go into research.

Since then, he has continued his research in France and Switzerland.

He has been working in France and Switzerland ever since. Since my teenage years, I have loved classical music. I have loved classical music since I was a teenager, and I admired Karajan and wanted to be a conductor. So I also studied conducting. I recruited orchestra members, and for about three years, I was also a conductor.”

He is a person who strives to realize his dreams of becoming a conductor and curing incurable diseases, one by one.

In addition to developing a cure for cats, I am also developing a drug that will be effective for humans. In the case of humans, we are developing a drug that can be used in the body to AIM but for some people, it is not possible to cure AIM is low or weak in some people. Or they do not have a proper amount of AIM Some people have a decent amount of AIM but produce so much waste that it is not enough to clean it up. Such is the case with AIM is not enough, the garbage will continue to accumulate and, like cats, they will probably develop kidney disease.

Also, for example, one of the main causes of stroke that leaves people paralyzed is that when blood vessels in the brain clog and some brain cells die, the dead cells and broken proteins cause inflammation in the brain. At this time AIM is administered, it cleans out such inflammatory debris, thus reducing the risk of remaining paralyzed and increasing the survival rate, as confirmed by animal experiments and published in a paper. Other, AIM We are also developing a diagnostic method for the early detection of diseases.

Dr. Miyazaki, who has been conducting research as a professor at the University of Tokyo since ’05, established the AIM Medical Research Institute in ’22. Currently, he continues this research as a private research institute.

I think I was really lucky with all the coincidences,” he says.

This luck is backed up by his efforts to “conduct more experiments than anyone else.

The laboratory in Shinjuku-ku has many staff members, but “sometimes I do the experiments when they are urgent,” he says. I’m good at experiments (laughs).
In the stylish laboratory, young researchers are working silently. I sense a quiet energy of “doing something new.
Dr. Miyazaki explains his research. He is a spirited researcher, but his eyes are warm as he says, “I want to make this medicine available to every child (cat).
  • Interview and text by Izumi Nakagawa Izumi Nakagawa

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