Feature Channels: Liver Disease

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in the January 2021 issue, Toxicological Sciences offers an engaging slate of research in toxicology, from endocrine toxicology and biomarkers to genetic and epigenetic toxicology and mixtures toxicology.

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Researchers with Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine are collaborating with faculty at the University of Pennsylvania to develop a risk score that more comprehensively prioritizes liver cancer patients for transplantation.

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The January issue of The American Journal of Gastroenterology is now available and features new clinical research across a wide range of GI and hepatology topics, including NAFLD, colorectal cancer screening, GERD, post-COVID-19-associated functional GI disorder surges, celiac disease, and more.

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UC San Diego Health’s lung, heart, kidney and liver transplant programs rank at the top nationally in the latest biannual Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) report. Innovative treatment and multi-disciplinary care contribute to the high rankings for one-year survival outcomes.

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A new study finds that tumors in the liver siphon off critical immune cells, rendering immunotherapy ineffective. But coupling immunotherapy with radiotherapy to the liver in mice restored the immune cell function and led to better outcomes.

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Women awaiting liver transplants in the United States are known to be about one-third more likely than men to become too ill to undergo surgery or die before receiving a liver.

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The Liver and Intestinal Transplant Program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles began in 1998 and now performs 25 to 30 liver transplants each year—the most in Southern California—with survival rates exceeding national averages. The hospital recently performed its 400th transplant.

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Bursting gas-filled microbubbles using ultrasound waves sensitizes tumors to targeted radiation, reducing tumor growth and improving overall survival after treatment.

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In PLOS Biology, a Stanford scientist ranked and published the top 2% of scientists (~150,000) from all fields of science based on their publication records, impact factor of the journal and the citation rates by other prominent investigators. Mercy’s Sergey V. Kantsevoy, M.D (top 0.5% in the world) and Paul J. Thuluvath, M.D (top 0.15% in the world) of The Institute for Digestive Health and Liver Disease (IDHLD) were noted among this 2% of all world scientists from all disciplines of science.

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Today the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) announced that Hepatology Communications – AASLD’s free, open-access journal – has been accepted into Clarivate’s Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and Journal Citation Reports – one of the leading citation indexes for journals of science and technology. The journal will now be eligible for an Impact Factor (IF) evaluation, which measures the frequency that a journal is cited and contributes to its reputation in the scientific community. Hepatology Communications will receive its first Impact Factor evaluation in the summer of 2021.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Johns Hopkins Medicine Media Relations is focused on disseminating current, accurate and useful information to the public via the media. As part of that effort, we are distributing our “COVID-19 Tip Sheet: Story Ideas from Johns Hopkins” every other Tuesday.

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The December issue of The American Journal of Gastroenterology is now available and features new clinical research across a wide range of gastroenterology and hepatology topics, including health disparities, colorectal cancer, cirrhosis, pediatric gastroenterology, the environmental impact of endoscopy, and more.

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Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have combined synthetic biology with a machine learning algorithm to create human liver organoids with blood and bile handling systems. When implanted into mice with failing livers, the lab-grown replacement livers extended life.

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Basic science research explores the effects of impaired glycine metabolism in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease – and how to potentially use glycine-based treatment to help people with NAFLD.

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Cleveland Clinic is the first hospital in the world to use a recently FDA-approved ablation technology that can destroy large liver tumors. The minimally invasive procedure uses a single needle connected to a powerful 150-watt microwave generator that can burn a malignant liver tumor as large as 2.4 inches, which is about the size of an egg. Eren Berber, M.D., director of Cleveland Clinic’s Surgical Liver Tumor Ablation Program, led a team that successfully used the technology in October to treat a patient who had a 2.4-inch liver tumor.

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New York University, Columbia University, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (“Takeda”) have formed a collaborative research alliance to begin and advance gastroenterology research programs, with the goal of developing new therapies for patients with gastrointestinal and liver disorders.

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Triclosan, an antimicrobial found in many soaps and other household items, worsens fatty liver disease in mice fed a high-fat diet.

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The condition trimethylaminuria, is more commonly known as fish odour syndrome, it currently has no cure.

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Called PCSK9Q152H, the mutation of the PCSK9 gene was initially thought to protect against cardiovascular diseases. Recent studies reveal that it may protect against other human illnesses, mainly liver diseases. It may allow the PCSK9Q152H mutant subjects to stay in good health and live longer, the researchers say in a study published today in the prestigious Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Emory researchers found significant differences in death rates even within the same state, according to a recently published study in Gastroenterology.

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Study finds that in a diverse, global patient population, a minimal monitoring (MINMON) approach to hepatitis C treatment was safe and achieved comparable sustained virologic response (SVR) to current standard of care.

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Data from a new study presented this week at The Liver Meeting Digital Experience® – held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD)– found that among pregnant women with hepatitis C virus (HCV), more than 25 percent were initially diagnosed during pregnancy screenings, which supports prenatal care as an important opportunity to screen for HCV in women. However, the study also found that less than one third of infants receive appropriate HCV testing, a significant care gap.

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Data from a new study presented this week at The Liver Meeting Digital Experience® – held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases – found that the burden of cirrhosis in women in North America has increased substantially in recent years, a worrying trend driven by a rise in alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Projections suggest that both ALD and NAFLD rates will result in even higher cirrhosis incidence by 2040, with the most worrisome upward trends seen in young women with ALD and post-menopausal women with NAFLD.

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Data from a new study presented this week at The Liver Meeting Digital Experience® – held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases – found that the distribution of a person’s body fat affects coronary heart disease risk, with an increased risk of heart events among people with a combination of high visceral adipose tissue (VAT) – abdominal fat─ and low liver fat. The study’s findings indicate that liver triglyceride regulation plays an important role in heart health in people with discordant visceral adipose tissue and liver fat levels.

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ALEXANDRIA, VA – Data from a new study presented this week at The Liver Meeting Digital Experience® – held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases – found that COVID-19 coagulation impairment, driven in part by endothelial Factor VIII, is associated with liver injury in infected patients. The study’s findings also show that IL-6 trans-signaling, which may play a role in COVID-19 development, results in prothrombotic liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) that may mediate the liver injury via elevated Factor VIII and activation of coagulation in the liver microvasculature.

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Data from a new study presented this week at The Liver Meeting Digital Experience® – held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases – found that using neural networks, a type of machine learning algorithm, is a more accurate model for predicting waitlist mortality in liver transplantation, outperforming the older model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) scoring. This advancement could lead to the development of more equitable organ allocation systems and even reduce liver transplant waitlist death rates for patients.

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Data from a new study presented this week at The Liver Meeting Digital Experience® – held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases – found that in 2019, more than 500,000 persons died of hepatitis B virus infection, highlighting the urgent need for universal HBV vaccination of children beginning at birth, and scaling up testing and access to care and treatment before people with the virus develop life-threatening liver cirrhosis or liver cancer.

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Data from a new study presented this week at The Liver Meeting Digital Experience® – held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases – found that while neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation is associated with worse adverse long-term outcomes after liver transplant in children, improving center-specific practices can mitigate these effects for young at-risk patients.

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Data from a new study presented this week at The Liver Meeting Digital Experience® – held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases – found that U.S. states that took part in the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, which extended health care coverage to more low-income citizens, improved liver transplant waitlist placement, especially for certain racial groups.

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Data from a new study presented this week at The Liver Meeting Digital Experience® – held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases – found that the rate of new hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cases has slowed since 2009, but only in urban areas. Rural non-Hispanic whites and Blacks have experienced the greatest increases over time when comparing rural and urban HCC trends by specific demographic factors.

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Data from a new study presented this week at The Liver Meeting Digital Experience® – held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases – found that ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) treatment has significant, positive results for patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), including reduced incidence of biliary tract cancer, reduced mortality and less need for liver transplant.

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About 1 in 5 patients who are on the national waiting list for a liver transplant die or become too sick before an organ becomes available. With an ever-growing need for organs, Mayo Clinic is working to increase awareness about living liver donation for transplantation.

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U.S. News & World Report named University of California San Diego School of Medicine a top global university and ranked the divisions of Gastroenterology and Hepatology #1 in the world for research.

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Liver failure – often due to acetaminophen overdose – is fatal in 80% of cases. The labs of Profs. Ido Amit and Eran Elinav discovered three liver-cell subsets that contribute to disease progression, and found that depleting the microbiome acts on those subsets to reduce liver damage and increase survival rates. The research may lead to treatments for liver failure.

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An Iowa State researcher helped develop a tool to personalize cancer outreach efforts. The research shows a more personalized approach improves the completion rate of recommended screenings for patients at high risk for liver cancer.

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Hepatitis B disproportionately impacts U.S. Blacks, including African American and Haitian Blacks. Both communities suffer from widespread misinformation and access to care issues that might avert disease detection and prevention, according to a study published in Cancer Causes & Control by researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

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Media invited to live Q&A on Oct 7th, 2pm EDT

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Incidence and mortality of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a common type of liver cancer, is increasing in the United States. Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey experts have received a $50,000 award through the Translational Research Pilot Award Program that will support the examination of how a drug combination impacts the growth of both human HCC cancer cells and tumors in laboratory models, with the goal of identifying a new treatment for patients with this disease.

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UVA Children’s is opening a pediatric hepatology clinic in Richmond on Oct. 6 that will provide comprehensive care for children with liver disease, including evaluations for liver transplants.

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The October issue of SLAS Technology features the cover article, “Role of Digital Micro uidics in Enabling Access to Laboratory Automation and Making Biology Programmable” by Varun B. Kothamachu, Ph.D., Sabrina Zaini and Federico Muffatto (Digi.Bio).

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UC San Diego Health is the first hospital on the West Coast to perform heart transplant surgery from a donor after circulatory death using a new portable organ care system. The investigational procedure could significantly decrease transplant waiting list times and improve patient outcomes.

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A biomedical engineering research team from Tulane University is developing a novel cancer treatment hepatocellular carcinoma, a highly fatal form of liver cancer.

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Squirrel monkeys have been identified as a new animal model to further study and improve therapies for hepatitis B infection caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Christopher Chen, Ph.D., Assistant Director for Research at the Southwest National Primate Center at Texas Biomed, led the team of scientists who published their findings in Hepatology Communications.

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UC San Diego Health is the first hospital in San Diego and only health care system in Southern California to transplant a liver from a donor with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) into an HIV-positive recipient. The surgery is part of a national clinical trial.