Jinan University

SHANGHAI, Aug. 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Sanyou Biopharmaceuticals (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Sanyou Bio") and Guangdong JiAnTeBo Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "JiAnTeBo") have signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Under the leadership of Professor Yin Zhinan, the founder and chairman of JiAnTeBo, the company has made original pioneering discoveries of new targets for metabolic diseases such as obesity, fatty liver, diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease. At present, building on its existing drug pipeline, JiAnTeBo is focusing on the development of new pipelines of agonist antibody drugs. The purpose of this collaboration is to fully leverage the strong strength of Sanyou Bio's antibody discovery platform, involving screening from sub-libraries of Super-trillion fully human antibody library, Phage display mouse immune antibody library, and Phage display alpaca immune antibody library. Through processes such as antibody expression, purification, identification, affinity validation, and druggability analysis, the collaboration aims to identify and obtain more than 200 specific antibody drug lead molecules. JiAnTeBo will then use its comprehensive cell activity detection system for functional testing of these lead molecules. It is expected to open up new ways for the treatment of major diseases using agonist monoclonal antibodies. Professor Yin Zhinan, the founder of JiAnTeBo, has deeply devoted to the field of immunometabolism for 30 years and is a world-leading immunologist and an eminent translational medicine scientist. He currently serves as the Dean and doctoral advisor of the Institute of Biomedical Translational Research at Jinan University. He is also a Distinguished Professor under the "Cheung Kong Scholars Programme" of the Ministry of Education and a recipient of the National Outstanding Youth Fund. Over seven years, Professor Yin Zhinan led the scientific research team to make original discoveries of multiple new targets for treating major diseases such as obesity, insulin resistance, and Alzheimer's disease. The relevant results were published in journals such as Nature and he won China Annual Important Medical Progress Award. Professor Yin also took the lead in obtaining approval for the Guangdong Provincial Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research (Pilot) to explore new ways to treat fatty liver and Alzheimer's disease. Professor Yin Zhinan mentioned, "We will always be committed to finding innovative therapies in the field of metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, fatty liver, and Alzheimer's disease. By partnering with Sanyou Bio, we will leverage their expertise technology and innovation capabilities in the field of antibodies, and based on our existing protein pipeline and mRNA new drug pipeline, to accelerate the layout of our original research pipeline and promote the development of agonist antibody drugs, thus bringing more effective treatment options to patients suffering major diseases around the world." Dr. Lang Guojun, CEO of Sanyou Bio, stated, "We are thrilled to partner on R&D with JiAnTeBo, an excellent team dedicated to pioneering innovative therapies. With Sanyou Bio's three major innovative drug R&D technology platforms: 'Super-Trillion, Integration, Intelligence', we are confident in our ability to better assist JiAnTeBo in completing the strategic layout of innovative biological drugs. The strong alliance of the two parties will definitely bring new hope to more tumor and metabolic patients." At the signing ceremony, key representatives from both companies were present to witness this significant event, including Professor Yin Zhinan (Founder), Yang Guang (CEO), and Yang Hengwen (CTO) from JiAnTeBo and Dr. Lang Guojun (CEO), Li Shuangqi (Project Director), Ren Zhiqiang (Project Leader), and Yang Aochu (Reginal Manager of Technical Services in South China) from Sanyou Bio. About Guangdong JiAnTeBo Biotechnology Co., Ltd. JiAnTeBo was established in December 2021 and is headquartered in Cuiheng New District, Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province. With the Institute of Biomedical Translational Research at Jinan University as its core, JiAnTeBo has extensively cooperated with first-class scientific research institutions, universities, and top-tier hospitals both domestically and internationally, focusing on innovative targets and devoting itself to the development of original new drugs for major diseases such as obesity and diabetes. The founder, Professor Yin Zhinan has been deeply engaged in the field of immunometabolism for 30 years. He is a globally renowned immunologist and outstanding translational medicine scientist. It took 7 years for Professor Yin Zhinan to lead the scientific research team and originally discover innovative targets for the treatment of major diseases such as obesity and insulin resistance. These significant findings and relevant results have been published in prestigious international journals such as Nature. About Sanyou Biopharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. Sanyou Biopharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. is a world-leading high-tech biotechnology enterprise focusing on R&D and services of innovative biologic drugs. Sanyou has built the 4C business patterns that integrate "differentiated CRO, integrated CDO, innovative CPO and characteristic CRS", to accomplish the mission "to make the R&D easy for innovative biologics". Sanyou has established an integrated innovative biologic drug R&D laboratory with advanced facilities, and has a professional team with the majority holding a Ph.D. or master degree. Sanyou has built three industry-leading innovative technology platforms featured by "super-trillion, integration, and intelligence", which are comprised of more than 50 sub-platforms with the core innovative super-trillion phage display platform, and supported by platforms of material preparation, biologics discovery, molecule optimization, in vitro and in vivo efficacy, production cell line construction, upstream and downstream process development, preclinical R&D, industrialization development, etc. Sanyou's business network has expanded to all parts of the world, including Asia, US and Europe, and established branches in Boston, Philadelphia, San Diego and London. Sanyou has established friendly business relationships with more than 1000 pharmaceutical companies, drug R&D institutions and diagnostics companies worldwide. Sanyou received National-level certification as a high-tech enterprise and a Specialized and Sophisticated enterprise, and passed the ISO9001 quality assurance certification and GB/T intellectual property management system certification. SOURCE Sanyou Bio

A new study identifies numerous pathways by which the gut microbiome may change the immune system. During pregnancy, a woman's immune system changes dramatically but researchers don't yet understand all the underlying mechanisms. A new study shows how the gut microbiota may play a role. In a paper published this week in mSystems, researchers in China report that during pregnancy, changes in levels of cytokines -- immune system proteins important in inflammation -- may be linked to specific alterations in the mother's gut microbiome and in plasma and fecal metabolites. "To the best of our knowledge, these associations were first explored in our study," said first author Ting Huang, M.D., from the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University in Guangzhou, China. Pregnancy brings a raft of changes, including fluctuations in hormones, changes to a woman's body structure, and variations in the immune system. Previous studies have identified changes to the gut microbiome that can occur during pregnancy; they have also suggested that those changes may influence physiological processes in the mother through metabolites. Disturbances in the microbiota, for example, have been connected to the promotion of preeclampsia, a dangerous pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure. However, it remains unclear how alterations in the gut microbiota during pregnancy affect maternal immunity. To investigate these connections, the researchers at the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University compared the gut microbiota, metabolite profiles and immune system status of 30 healthy pregnant women to 15 healthy women who weren't pregnant. All the women in the study were between 18 and 34 years old. Fecal and blood samples were collected from the pregnant women during or after the 37th week of pregnancy, and samples from non-pregnant women were collected on the 14th day of the menstrual cycle. Analyses of the fecal samples showed that Firmicutes was the most dominant phylum of bacteria in both groups of women. However, Bacteroidota bacteria accounted for a smaller relative share of the microbial population in pregnant women than in non-pregnant women. Pregnant women also showed a higher relative abundance of both Actinobacteriota and Proteobacteria, compared to non-pregnant women. The researchers similarly found a distinct difference in the cytokine levels in the 2 groups. Pregnant women had lower levels of cytokines that promote inflammation, and they showed higher levels of cytokines that act against inflammation. These results suggest that the immune system may be suppressed during pregnancy, the authors noted. The researchers then identified hundreds of metabolites found in the plasma and fecal samples. They found that each group -- pregnant and non-pregnant women -- had its own distinct collection of metabolites, or metabolome. Notably, many of those metabolites were connected to bile acid secretion and metabolism, and bile acids have previously been tied to inflammation. In further analyses, they found that some enriched metabolites in pregnant women were associated with lower levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Similarly, some of the depleted metabolites are associated with increases in pro-inflammatory cytokines. Finally, the group identified a total of 46 connections among microbes, metabolites and cytokines. They found that some microbes enriched in pregnant women, for example, may inhibit an immune response by inhibiting pro-inflammatory metabolites. Overall, Huang said, the results support the idea that gut microbes interact with host metabolites to change cytokine levels in the blood. However, Huang cautioned that the study doesn't establish causation. In addition, the small sample size may amplify errors arising from individual differences, and the design of the study doesn't account for cofounding factors, like diet. More clinical trials are needed, the researchers said, to confirm and better elucidate the connections.

A researcher is cautioning that a person's poor eating habits established during post-secondary studies can contribute to future health issues including obesity, respiratory illnesses and depression. A UBC Okanagan researcher is cautioning that a person's poor eating habits established during post-secondary studies can contribute to future health issues including obesity, respiratory illnesses and depression. Dr. Joan Bottorff, a Professor with UBCO's School of Nursing, is one of several international researchers who published a multi-site study looking at the eating habits of university students. Almost 12,000 medical students from 31 universities in China participated in the study that aimed to determine the association between eating behaviours, obesity and various diseases. The point, says Dr. Bottorff, is that many poor eating habits begin at university and can continue for decades. "We know many students consume high-calorie meals along with sugary foods and drinks and there is lots of evidence to show those kinds of eating behaviours can lead to obesity," says Dr. Bottorff. "These are not the only habits that lead to obesity, but they are important and can't be ruled out." The study, published recently in Preventive Medicine Reports, was led by Dr. Shihui Peng with the School of Medicine at China's Jinan University. While there is well-established research that links unhealthy diets to many chronic diseases, this study aimed to show a relationship between poor eating habits and infectious diseases including colds and diarrhea. Dr. Bottorff notes, due to the nature of the study, it was not possible to show cause and effect but the relationship between poor eating habits, obesity and respiratory illnesses were well supported. "There has been biomedical research that also supports this link between obesity and infectious diseases, and most recently this has been related to COVID-19," she adds. "We know from some of the recent publications related to COVID-19, obese people were more likely to have severe conditions and outcomes. Reasons that have been offered for this increased vulnerability include impaired breathing from the pressure of extra weight and poorer inflammatory and immune responses." A typical student diet of high-sugar or high-calorie foods can become a long-term issue as these habits can lead to obesity. Dr. Bottorff says there is evidence to show that stress and anxiety can cause overeating, but overeating can also lead to stress and depression. "The bottom line here is that we shouldn't be ignoring this risk pattern among young people at university. It is well documented that a significant portion of students have unhealthy diets," she adds. "The types of foods they are eating are linked to obesity. And this can lead to other health problems that are not just about chronic disease but also infectious diseases." While Dr. Bottorff says students should be taught about healthy eating while at university the onus should be on the school to provide healthy, and affordable, food options for all students. "We need to think about the food environment that we provide students. We need to ensure that in our cafeterias and vending machines, there are healthy food options so that they can eat on the go but also make healthy food choices." It's not an issue going unnoticed. UBC Student Wellness and Food Services work together to address food security and food literacy and recognize that a lack of affordable food options, coupled with the stress of university life, can negatively impact students' food choices. Food insecure students have access to a low-barrier food bank and a meal share program. Meanwhile, UBCO Food Services' culinary team prioritizes local, organic and sustainably-sourced ingredients, and works with a registered dietitian to ensure a wide variety of food options are available to all diners. Dr. Bottorff agrees there have been improvements to food options in cafeterias and notes the drinks in many vending machines have been rearranging so healthier items are at eye-level and sugary choices are lower down. "I know many post-secondary schools are trying to figure out how we can do better and are trying to address these problems," she adds. "It's great, because four or five years ago, we weren't. So, I think we're on the right road, but I think we're a long way from finished."