A cellular model system for drug development in fatty liver disease

A 3D in vitro cell culture model as a basis for the development of new treatment strategies for one of the most common diseases in industrialized nations

12-Sep-2024 - Scientists from the Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University have developed a model system that can be used to test the efficacy of drugs for fatty liver disease. It is a three-dimensional (3D) in vitro cell culture system based on primary human liver parenchymal cells (hepatocytes). The ...

Researchers decipher mechanisms of liver regeneration

Study shows that human organs can regenerate even after prolonged diseases and repetitive injury

28-May-2024 - Scientists from the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH) and Open Targets together with colleagues from the University of Cambridge, and Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, UK, uncovered mechanisms driving regeneration of the liver during chronic liver disease. This regenerative process ...

New weapon against hepatitis D

Paving the way for drug therapy of the particularly aggressive liver disease

27-Jun-2023 - In a multicentre phase 3 trial, researchers at the MHH have demonstrated the efficacy and safety of the drug Bulevirtide, which prevents HD viruses from entering the liver. This paves the way for a drug therapy of the particularly aggressive liver disease. Infection with hepatitis D virus (HDV) ...

Beethoven’s genome: New study reveals hereditary diseases and a family mystery

Scientists have sequenced the composer’s genome using five genetically matching hair locks

24-Mar-2023 - The study shows Beethoven was predisposed to liver disease, and infected with Hepatitis B, which – combined with his alcohol consumption – may have contributed to his death. Furthermore, DNA from modern relatives points to an extramarital ‘event’ in Beethoven’s paternal line. Johannes Krause, ...

New gene taxis to combat liver disease

Research team finds two promising AAV capsid variants for gene therapy in the liver

31-Oct-2022 - There are numerous severe, hardly treatable monogenetic diseases that are caused by a defect in a single gene - also in the liver. These include the blood coagulation disorders haemophilia A or B or the metabolic disease phenylketonuria. Gene therapies could help here, in which intact genes are ...

Infectious agent offers protection against liver cancer

Vaccine proves safe and effective against liver fibrosis and liver cancer

22-Feb-2022 - Liver cancer is the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. So far, the treatment options for two types of liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), have been inadequate, while the number of new cases has been rising. A study by researchers at ...

Start-up raises hope in the fight against acute and chronic liver diseases

The biotech company HepaRegeniX, founded in 2017, starts clinical testing of the tolerability of its developed drug in volunteers.

11-Aug-2021 - The Tübingen-based start-up HepaRegeniX recently began a Phase I clinical trial to test the tolerability of a novel drug against liver disease in healthy volunteers. The drug is a so-called MKK4 inhibitor, which, when administered, curbs the activity of the kinase MKK4. Preclinical studies have ...

Immune cells in the liver drive fatty liver disease and liver cancer

17-Oct-2014 - Immune cells that migrate to the liver and interact there with liver tissue cells get activated by metabolic stress (e.g. through lipids of a high fat diet) and drive the development of fatty liver disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and liver cancer. Scientists from the Helmholtz Zentrum ...

Vitamin A: Intake via cosmetic products should be restricted

04-Feb-2014 - The term “Vitamin A” denotes a group of fat-soluble substances belonging to the category ofretinoids. Apart from retinol (Vitamin A these include structurally related substances with the biolgoical properties of retinol. Since the biological activity of the substances differs, it is,for the ...