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One of the research lines of the UPV / EHU group Lipids & Liver (Spain), focused on the mechanisms involved in the development and progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, is making important progress in various aspects, such as the identification of proteins that alter the metabolic pathways of development and progression of liver disease, including cancer, and the search for targets with which to reverse the disease.
According to the latest data, the disease Nonalcoholic fatty liver is affected by 30% of the general population, and this percentage increases up to 70-80% in certain risk groups, such as the obese, the diabetes, etc. because it is associated with metabolic diseases. The disease begins with a simple storage of fat or lipid in the liver, which in principle may be benign, but in some patients it may progress and produce hepatitis, steatohepatitis, due to inflammation, risk factor for development of cirrhosis of the liver or even liver cancer. Currently, there is no specific treatment for this disease, and because of the high prevalence of obesity and current diabetes, it is expected that liver cancer caused by this fat stock goes off in a few years. transplants for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.
The Lipid and Liver Research Group of the Department of Physiology of the Faculty of Medicine and Nursing of UPV / EHU is working on the research of mechanisms involved in the development and progression of liver diseases . and mainly mechanisms related to alterations related to lipid metabolism (fat). Specifically, one of the group's research lines, focused on the study of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, focuses on research aimed at "knowing why the disease is evolving in some patients and not in patients". 39; other; find markers of evolution, which can give us a prognosis in which patients will evolve; and to find not only liver markers (which can be obtained by biopsy), but also serum markers, which through simple blood tests can indicate the phase in which the patient is, "says Dr. Patricia Aspichueta, head of the line
Basically, members of the research group focus on the study of lipid metabolism in the liver, that is, in the chemical reactions in which they are formed or consumed. To do this, they work with animal models to which a gene has been reduced and to which various disease-inducing diets and treatments are administered, and once they have validated or identified a target in the animal model, they validate it. in human samples. In addition, they also work with in vitro or cellular models, "because it's easier to know which cell is damaged, altered, or altered, and you can play with different drugs, different inducers, and it's easier to shut up." certain metabolic pathways, etc. . ", Explains Aspichueta.
The Lipids & Liver research group focuses on the study of lipid metabolism in the liver, that is, the chemical reactions in which they are formed or consumed. (Photo: Kateryna Kon / 123RF)
Group members are studying different molecules or targets involved in different processes of liver disease. Aspichueta points out some of the pathways that are open in the research group: "On the one hand, we want to identify proteins that alter metabolic pathways and that contribute more lipids to the liver. We want to know why this lipid warehouse is formed, and why this store is advancing the disease, even in phases such as cancer. It is important to know who the actors in these processes are, in order to silence them and see if the disease is the reverse. "In addition, they are studying the involvement of lipids in the regeneration of the liver," a very important point of view for patients who have a piece of liver removed, because the liver is the only organ that returns to its size In another of these studies, they study "how the liver controls adipose tissue, and how the functioning of the liver is modulated, animals lose weight."
Aspichueta states that they have found "an important therapeutic target that modulates the metabolism and progression of the disease." They induced the development of a liver cancer associated with obesity in animal models that have this protein silenced and "We have seen that animals do not develop the disease at all: neither liver cancer nor fat storage. It's impressive, "says the doctor. Now, "we are working with human samples of non-alcoholic fatty liver to validate the involvement of these proteins in human pathology." The researchers aim to find targets that control multiple metabolic pathways at the same time, "because metabolic impairment does not occur in a single pathway, but decompensation occurs, the metabolism is unbalanced, and multiple pathways are seen The liver is the metabolic center, and by controlling the liver, we can control many pathologies associated with this liver disease. "
The Lipids & Liver research group was recognized as a group Consolidated by the Department of Education of the Basque Government since 2007. Its research activity on the pathophysiology of lipid metabolism is included in the strategic line Health and Quality of Life of the Ministry of Economy and Health. competitiveness and the Basque Government, in the field of biomedicine and in the healthy aging and quality of life of Euskampus.
The group works closely with various research groups of the UPV / EHU and external, with whom they have obtained numerous publications in different scientific journals. The group is part of the Biocircuits Sanitary Institute, in which it extends its research in pathology in humans. In addition, he collaborates with CIC bioGUNE, the University of Santiago de Compostela, other groups in Madrid, with the Hospital Valdecilla (Santander), as well as with the University from South Carolina and Yale University. In addition, he is collaborating with a North American pharmaceutical company in the search for therapeutic targets. (Source: UPV / EHU)
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