Foreword

The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (PSJ) has projected International Symposium for Medicinal Sciences (ISMS) with pharmaceutical company researchers being encouraged to participate in the annual meeting of the PSJ and to create a close international contact with researchers interested in medicinal sciences. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th ISMS were held in the 135th, 136th, 137th and, 138th annual meetings at Kobe, Yokohama, Sendai, and Kanazawa respectively. The 5th ISMS, including two invited lectures by Prof. James A. Wells, University of California, San Francisco, U.S.A., and Prof. Andrew L. Hopkins, Exscientia Ltd., U.K., and 43 invited poster presentations, was organized in the 139th Chiba annual meeting in 2019. Prof. Wells presented the lecture about “Attacking the Cell Surfaceome in Cancer” and Prof. Hopkins introduced recent advances in “The AI Revolution in Drug Discovery.” And we called active contributions from invited poster precentors in the 5th ISMS. For the Current Topics section in the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin (CPB) and Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin (BPB), we have assembled fourteen contributions. In this issue of the BPB are published three reviews and three regular articles which covered the entire drug discovery field including medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, and regulatory sciences.

The first review, entitled “Drug Repositioning and Target Finding Based on Clinical Evidence” was contributed by Prof. Kaneko and his colleague. This review focuses the data-driven approach in which adverse event self-reports are statistically analyzed and compared to find and validate new drug targets.

The second review, “Selenoprotein P; P for Plasma, Prognosis, Prophylaxis, and More” is by Profs. Tsutsumi and Saito. In this review, authors summarize the characteristics of selenoprotein (SeP) and recent advances in the field, especially focusing on the emerging roles for SeP in pathophysiological conditions. Additionally, potential medical/pharmaceutical applications targeting SeP is also discussed.

The third review, “Reconstituted Human Organ Models as a Translational Tool for Human Organ Response: Definition, Expectations, Cases, and Strategies for Implementation in Drug Discovery and Development” is by Dr. Tetsuka et al. of Astellas Pharma Inc. In this review, cell culture models represented by organ-on-a-chip, 3D-tissues, and microphysiological systems are categorized as human reconstituted organ models, which recapitulate human organ-like structure, function, and responses with physiological relevance. Additionally, the expectations of reconstituted organ models from the viewpoint of a pharmaceutical company based on recent concerns expressed in drug discovery and development are described.

The first original article, entitled “Estimating Efflux Transporter-Mediated Disposition of Molecules beyond the Rule of Five (bRo5) Using Transporter Gene Knockout Rats” is by Dr. Miyake of Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. indicates that transporter knockout rats which lack P-gp and/or Bcrp expression are a useful in vivo ADME tool for estimating the transporter-mediated disposition of beyond the Rule of Five (bRo5) molecules in drug discovery.

In “A Novel Binary Supercooled Liquid Formulation for Transdermal Drug Delivery” the second original article by Dr. Hirakawa et al., preparation of the binary supercooled liquid (SCL) by intermolecular interaction and application to the transdermal drug delivery are described. And this research indicates that SCL state could enhance the skin permeation of drugs and the binary SCL formed by intermolecular interaction could also improve the stability of the SCL.

The third original article, “Docetaxel Upregulates HMGB1 Levels in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer” is contributed by Dr. Haruna et al. In this article, studies on the identification of preferable chemotherapy to combine with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) against lung cancer leads to the finding that docetaxel could be involved in anti-tumor immunity via increase in plasma levels of high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) as damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), showing that docetaxel might be a candidate for combination treatment with ICIs.

I believe that these reviews and articles provide useful information for progress of medicinal sciences and sincerely thank all authors for their significant contributions.