Akira Endo (遠藤 章, Endō Akira, 14 November 1933 – 5 June 2024) was a Japanese biochemist whose research into the relationship between fungi and cholesterol biosynthesis led to the development of statin drugs, which are some of the best-selling pharmaceuticals in history.
Endo was born on a farm in Northern Japan and had an interest in fungi already at a young age, being an admirer of Alexander Fleming.[3] He obtained a BA at Tohoku University (Faculty of Agriculture) in Sendai in 1957[4] and a PhD in biochemistry at the same university in 1966.[citation needed]
Endo died of pneumonia on 5 June 2024, at the age of 90.[5][6]
Career
From 1957 to 1978 he worked as a research fellow at chemical company Sankyo Co.;[4] initially he worked on fungal enzymes for processing fruit juice.[7] Successful discoveries in this field gained him the credit to move to New York City in 1966, and spend two years at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine as a research associate[1] working on enzymes[4] and cholesterol.[3]
His most important work in the 1970s was on fungal extrolites and their influence on cholesterol synthesis. He hypothesised that fungi used chemicals to ward off parasitic organisms by inhibiting cholesterol synthesis. The cell membranes of fungi contain ergosterol in place of cholesterol, allowing them to produce compounds that inhibit cholesterol. In 1971 he found a culture broth with citrinin had potent inhibitory activity against HMG-CoA reductase and lowered serum cholesterol levels in rats, but research was suspended because of renal toxicity.
Endo studied 6,000 compounds, of which three extrolites from Penicillium citrinum mold isolated from a rice sample collected at a grain shop in Kyoto showed an effect.[8][4] Findings from clinical studies were only reported in 1980.[9]
One of them, mevastatin, was the first member of the statin class of drugs. Soon after, lovastatin, the first commercial statin, was found in the Aspergillus mold. Although mevastatin never became an approved drug, the mevastatin derivative pravastatin did.
Apart from the recognition, Endo never derived financial benefit from his discovery, despite the fact that statins are amongst the most widely prescribed medications.[3] "The millions of people whose lives will be extended through statin therapy owe it all to Akira Endo," according to Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize for related work on cholesterol.[12]
