Hepatology News and Research

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Hepatology is the branch of medicine that incorporates study of liver, gallbladder, biliary tree and pancreas as well as management of their disorders.

Measures to reduce BMI could improve outcome for patients with cirrhosis

Researchers from the United States and Europe involved in an NIH-funded multicenter study have determined that increased body mass index (BMI) is an independent predictor of clinical decompensation in patients with compensated cirrhosis, independent of portal pressure and liver function.

22 Jul 2011

Sequana Medical's ALFApump System for liver cirrhosis receives CE Mark approval

Sequana Medical announced today that it has received CE Mark approval for the commercial sale of its ALFApump System.

13 Jul 2011

First flexible endoscopy robotic surgery for gastric tumours performed in India

Patients with gastric tumours in their stomach will no longer have to suffer an eight-hour long surgery, but instead can look forward to a short day surgery which last a few minutes to an hour without the need for hospitalisation.

6 Jul 2011

Gene PNPLA3 offers potential therapeutic target in chronic hepatitis C liver damage

New research confirms that a variant on the patatin-like phospholipase-3 (PNPLA3) gene increases risk of steatosis and fibrosis progression in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV). The PNPLA3 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs 738409 may represent an important genetic predictor and potential therapeutic target in chronic HCV liver damage.

29 Jun 2011

Prototype small molecule drugs could suppress hepatitis C

Targeted multi-drug treatments for hepatitis C patients that could stop the virus in its tracks have come a step closer, thanks to researchers at the University of Leeds, UK.

29 Jun 2011

Combination therapies inhibiting P7 could prevent spread of HCV

British researchers have identified specific resistance mutations for two classes of p7 inhibitor, which may explain their lack of effectiveness in clinical trials combined with current standard of care.

29 Jun 2011

Flamel, Digna Biotech enter joint development agreement for multiple products

Flamel Technologies SA and Digna Biotech SL today announced that the two companies have entered into a joint development agreement for the pre-clinical and clinical development of multiple products.

27 Jun 2011

Telaprevir drug shows promise in curing hepatitis C infection

The drug telaprevir (Incivek) provides a dramatic improvement in the treatment of the most common form of hepatitis C infection, says an international team of investigators led by Dr. Ira M. Jacobson of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

23 Jun 2011

Alios, Vertex sign worldwide license agreement to develop new hepatitis C combination medicines

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated and Alios BioPharma, Inc. today announced an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement that will add two distinct nucleotide analogues to Vertex's hepatitis C portfolio.

13 Jun 2011

AGA honors outstanding high school students with 2011 research fellowship awards

The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Research Foundation has announced the 2011 Student Research Fellowship Award recipients. Funded by The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the awards are intended to stimulate interest in research careers in digestive diseases.

10 Jun 2011

Hepatitis C virus (HCV)-associated liver disease after liver transplantation

Hepatitis C virus (HCV)-associated liver disease continues to be the most common indication for liver transplantation (LT) in the United States accounting for nearly 50% of all liver transplants. Recurrence is universal in patients viremic at the time of transplantation with histological hepatitis developing in the majority of patients. Although the natural history of recurrent HCV is difficult to predict, it is widely accepted that cirrhosis from recurrent HCV occurs in up to 30% of patients within five years of transplantation.

8 Jun 2011

GW researchers demonstrate Mta1 gene's role in survival of schistosomes

By using mice lacking a crucial gene that controls the process of chromatin remodeling of cytokines including those responsible for inflammation and comparing them to normal wild type mice with the gene, researchers at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences have shown that the gene, Mta1, is essential for the parasite Schistosoma haematobium to establish a productive infection and survival in the host.

4 Jun 2011

Elastography and serum markers show promise in patients with liver disease

Patients who are evaluated for liver diseases such as hepatitis C (HCV) are typically recommended for liver biopsy to determine the extent of disease progression.

3 Jun 2011

Noninvasive diagnostics may offer alternative to liver biopsy for assessing liver fibrosis

Patients who are evaluated for liver diseases such as hepatitis C (HCV) are typically recommended for liver biopsy to determine the extent of disease progression. For patients who question whether less invasive testing is available, clinicians now have alternatives options to consider. Elastography and serum markers are two such diagnostic options reviewed in an editorial published in the June issue of Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

2 Jun 2011

Two new hepatitis C drugs effectively improve cure rates of African Americans

Two new drugs just approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat hepatitis C genotype 1 significantly improved the cure rates of patients. One of the drugs was extremely effective in treating African Americans.

27 May 2011

Scarcity of resources calls for equitable distribution system for novel HCV treatment

For many patients with the hepatitis C virus, direct antiviral agents (DAA) offer a potential cure for the disease. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved two new DAAs, telaprevir and boceprevir, and with that clinicians must now decide who should be the first to receive this treatment.

25 May 2011

Probiotic bacterial protein could offer new oral therapeutic option for inflammatory bowel disorders

A protein isolated from beneficial bacteria found in yogurt and dairy products could offer a new, oral therapeutic option for inflammatory bowel disorders, suggests a study led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researcher Fang Yan, M.D., Ph.D.

24 May 2011

Vertex receives FDA approval for INCIVEK to treat hepatitis C

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved INCIVEK™ (telaprevir) tablets for a broad group of people with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C with compensated liver disease (some level of damage to the liver but the liver still functions), including cirrhosis (scarring of the liver).

23 May 2011

Positive pirfenidone data in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis to be presented at ATS conference

InterMune, Inc. today announced that an oral presentation and a poster presentation related to the company's development program for pirfenidone in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis will be presented at the 2011 International Conference of the American Thoracic Society, being held in Denver May 13-18, 2011.

16 May 2011

The Lancet publishes two pirfenidone Phase 3 trial results in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

InterMune, Inc. today announced the publication of results from two Phase 3 trials demonstrating that treatment with pirfenidone, a novel antifibrotic and anti-inflammatory drug, was associated with favorable effects on lung function, 6-minute walk test distance and progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with mild to moderate idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

16 May 2011

Hepatology News and Research

Further Reading

Measures to reduce BMI could improve outcome for patients with cirrhosis

Sequana Medical's ALFApump System for liver cirrhosis receives CE Mark approval

First flexible endoscopy robotic surgery for gastric tumours performed in India

Gene PNPLA3 offers potential therapeutic target in chronic hepatitis C liver damage

Prototype small molecule drugs could suppress hepatitis C

Combination therapies inhibiting P7 could prevent spread of HCV

Flamel, Digna Biotech enter joint development agreement for multiple products

Telaprevir drug shows promise in curing hepatitis C infection

Alios, Vertex sign worldwide license agreement to develop new hepatitis C combination medicines

AGA honors outstanding high school students with 2011 research fellowship awards

Hepatitis C virus (HCV)-associated liver disease after liver transplantation

GW researchers demonstrate Mta1 gene's role in survival of schistosomes

Elastography and serum markers show promise in patients with liver disease

Noninvasive diagnostics may offer alternative to liver biopsy for assessing liver fibrosis

Two new hepatitis C drugs effectively improve cure rates of African Americans

Scarcity of resources calls for equitable distribution system for novel HCV treatment

Probiotic bacterial protein could offer new oral therapeutic option for inflammatory bowel disorders

Vertex receives FDA approval for INCIVEK to treat hepatitis C

Positive pirfenidone data in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis to be presented at ATS conference

The Lancet publishes two pirfenidone Phase 3 trial results in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Improving healthcare sustainability through carbon data

A New Approach to Preventing Bladder Cancer Recurrence

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

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