Characterisation of Clinical Biomarkers That Predict Lesions, and Lesion Progression and Regression in Established Rodent Models of Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH)
Characterization of clinical biomarkers in mice to bridge the gap between pre-clinical studies and patients
There is a tremendous unmet medical need for therapies that prevent and treat liver-related morbidity that is associated with the severe stages of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD): non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and liver fibrosis. However, development of such therapies is impeded by a lack of well-validated translational biomarkers that can assess disease progression and response to therapy in patients as well as in animals. This project aimed to evaluate and validate emerging clinical biomarkers in established animal models of NASH to facilitate translational research and accelerate drug development.
NAFLD has become the most common cause of chronic liver disease in Western countries, and its prevalence continues to rise in parallel with increasing rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes, to which it is strongly related. NASH, the progressive form of NAFLD, is a serious liver disease that can further progress to cirrhosis and liver cancer. There is currently no approved pharmacological therapy for NAFLD/NASH.
In this project, we first characterised changes in a panel of candidate biomarkers at different stages of lesion development, in 2 established mouse models for NASH. Next, we assessed the power of biomarkers selected in the first phase of the project to predict changes in disease status after drug treatment. Candidate biomarkers were selected based on published associations from clinical studies. We found that most of the measured biomarkers showed a characteristic time profile and differed between diseased animals and healthy controls (similar to what is observed in patients) but only a small subset showed a meaningful link with the degree of disease development. Hepatic fibrosis (a feature of advanced disease) could be predicted accurately by combining two biomarkers in an algorithm. This algorithm was also found to reflect the response to drug treatment, which means it may be of value to monitor responsiveness to pharmacological therapy.
Andere projecten
In elk PPS-project werken kennisinstellingen, bedrijven en zorgpartijen samen aan een concrete gezondheidsvraag. Bekijk het volledige projectoverzicht.
Bekijk de programma’s
Binnen onze programma’s werken bedrijven, kennisinstellingen en regionale partners samen aan innovaties die bijdragen aan betere gezondheid en zorg.
Bekijk de partnerschappen
Strategische publiek-private partnerschappen (PPP's) zijn meerjarige samenwerkingen tussen bedrijven, kennisinstellingen en andere partijen.
Hoe kunnen we je helpen?
Heb je een vraag of wil je meer weten over Health Holland? We brengen je graag in contact met de juiste mensen, kennis en mogelijkheden om gezondheidsinnovatie te versnellen.
We hebben uw bericht ontvangen
We nemen binnen 3 tot 4 werkdagen contact met je op. Is je vraag dringend? Neem dan gerust direct contact met ons op. Hieronder zie je de contactoptie die het beste past bij je onderwerp.
Opnieuw beginnen
Er ging iets mis bij het versturen van het formulier. Probeer het opnieuw.