Organ research and treatments – general thread

[weatheriscool]

New drug treats fatty liver disease in animal models, brings hope for first human treatment
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04- ... nimal.html
by University of Michigan

A recently developed amino acid compound successfully treats nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in non-human primates—bringing scientists one step closer to the first human treatment for the condition that is rapidly increasing around the world, a study suggests.

Researchers at Michigan Medicine developed DT-109, a glycine-based tripeptide, to treat the severe form of fatty liver disease called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. More commonly known as NASH, the disease causes scarring and inflammation in the liver and is estimated to affect up to 6.5% of the global population.

Results reveal that DT-109 reversed fat buildup and prevented scarring in the livers of both mice and primates that had developed NASH. The study, completed in partnership with an international team including the Laboratory Animal Center at Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center and the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences at Peking University Health Science Center, is published in Cell Metabolism.

"For years, scientists have been trying to develop a medication that treats NASH, but many attempts have failed to show an improvement or have raised safety concerns in clinical trials," said Eugene Chen, M.D., Ph.D., senior author of the study and Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at University of Michigan Medical School. "NASH is rising at a staggering rate, and successful treatment of non-human primates with our drug candidate, DT-109, brings us closer than ever to treating the millions of people suffering from this condition."

NASH is the second stage of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, which is estimated to affect 32% of people worldwide. While fatty liver disease can be treated with exercise and nutritional intervention, the liver damage from NASH is more permanent. It has become the primary cause of chronic liver disease, and NASH-related cirrhosis is now one of the most common reasons for liver transplantation.

Chen and his team developed DT-109 for treating NASH in non-human primates after reports showed that impaired glycine metabolism emerged as a cause of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and NASH.

While hundreds of compounds have successfully treated NASH in mice, including DT-109, Chen says mouse NASH models are limited because not all aspects of the human disease are accurately mimicked and, therefore, are not easily translatable to the clinic. The research team's non-human primate model for NASH, confirmed using multiomics profiling studies, is among the first to accomplish the feat.

[weatheriscool]

New Findings Suggest a Potential Treatment for Fibrosis
https://scitechdaily.com/new-findings-s ... -fibrosis/
Image
By Nagoya University April 9, 2023

According to a study published in Cell Death & Disease, scientists at Nagoya University in Japan have discovered two enzymes that play a role in macrophage polarization, a key factor affecting fibrosis. The findings of the study suggest a promising treatment possibility for human patients.

Kidney fibrosis is a deadly inflammatory disease that results in the stiffening and loss of normal function of the kidneys. The disease is associated with a mechanism known as macrophage polarization. Macrophages, which are white blood cells that assist the body in fighting infections and repairing tissues, undergo polarization in response to changes in their microenvironment. This polarization results in two different types of macrophages: M1, which causes inflammation, and M2, which possesses anti-inflammatory and tissue repair capabilities.

[wjfox]

Hope you don't mind, but I renamed this thread, to include more than just two organs.

[weatheriscool]

Researchers discover a novel pathway that minimizes liver injury during transplantation
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08- ... ation.html
by University of California, Los Angeles

UCLA-led research describes the role that a protein called CEACAM1 plays in protecting the liver from injury during the transplantation process, potentially improving transplant outcomes. But the features that regulate this protective characteristic remain unknown.

In a study, published online Aug. 2 in Science Translational Medicine, a research team has identified the molecular factors at the root of this protection and shown how using molecular tools and alternative gene splicing can make CEACAM1 more protective, thus reducing organ injury and ultimately improving post-transplant outcomes.

Prior to transplantation, a solid organ, such as a liver, has no blood flow and, as a result, lacks oxygen. Blood supply is returned to the organ during transplantation, but that process can cause inflammation and tissue damage called ischemic reperfusion injury, also known as reoxygenation injury.

"Understanding the factors that lead to organ shortage remains the best option to expand the donor pool available for life-saving transplantation," said Kenneth Dery, an associate project scientist in the UCLA Department of Surgery and the study's lead author. "Peri-transplant events, such as ischemia-reperfusion injury activate the recipient's immune responses and negatively affect outcomes.

[weatheriscool]

Engineered Antibody Could Prevent Organ Rejection After Transplant
While other therapeutics have helped people and other animals avoid organ rejection, this one appears to trigger fewer dangerous side effects.
https://www.extremetech.com/science/eng ... transplant
By Adrianna Nine September 6, 2023

Scientists at Duke University say they’ve successfully prevented organ rejection in nonhuman primates that have undergone kidney transplants. Their secret? An antibody engineered in the lab to help suppress a specific component of the immune system.

When it comes to receiving a new organ, the actual transplant procedure is only half the battle. Transplant patients risk inadvertently rejecting the new kidney, liver, heart, or other organ, thanks to the immune system’s natural tendency to fight foreign objects. The consequences of this rejection are tragic, often resulting in death even after several months or years have passed.

[weatheriscool]

Humanized kidneys grown inside pigs for the first time
Source: The Guardian

Scientists have grown humanized kidneys in pigs, raising the prospect of human organs being grown inside animals.

The research involved creating human-pig chimeric embryos containing a combination of human and pig cells. When transferred into surrogate pig mothers, the developing embryos were shown to have kidneys that contained mostly human cells, marking the first time that scientists have grown a solid humanized organ inside another animal.

“Rat organs have been produced in mice, and mouse organs have been produced in rats, but previous attempts to grow human organs in pigs have not succeeded,” said the senior author Liangxue Lai, of the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Wuyi University. “Our approach improves the integration of human cells into recipient tissues and allows us to grow human organs in pigs.”

The kidneys were not entirely human as they included vasculature and nerves made mostly from pig cells, meaning they could not be used for transplantation in their current form. It is not clear whether the challenge of making a wholly human organ would be achievable with current genetic engineering techniques.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... first-time

[weatheriscool]

Scientists Develop First Device to Monitor Transplanted Organs for Signs of Rejection
In rodent tests, the device has been shown to detect red flags three weeks earlier than conventional monitoring methods.
By Adrianna Nine September 11, 2023
The organ-monitoring device on a human finger.
https://www.extremetech.com/science/sci ... -for-signs

A team of materials scientists, bioelectronics experts, and medical researchers have teamed up to produce the world’s first-known device that monitors transplanted organs for signs of impending rejection. Smaller and thinner than the average pinky fingernail, the tiny interface can communicate physiological fluctuations to a patient’s medical team. While researchers have only tested the device in rodents, they believe their technology could help save human lives.

The weeks immediately following an organ transplant are highly stressful ones. With up to a 40% chance of experiencing rejection, patients must undergo constant monitoring to ensure their immune systems won’t fight off the new organ. Though immunosuppressive medications reduce the odds of rejection, doctors still have to watch for warning signs from tremors, nausea, and extreme fatigue to internal inflammation and infection. The latter are often found via biopsy, but beyond being invasive and expensive, they can be dangerous for immunocompromised patients. For kidney transplants, in particular, urine tests can help reveal signs of rejection, but the changes these tests rely upon don't occur until rejection has already begun to take hold.

[weatheriscool]

Popular antibiotic lessens organ damage caused by high blood pressure
By Michael Franco
November 03, 2023

Gut health can dramatically affect whole-body health. One of the latest findings to support this idea shows that using an antibiotic to alter the bacteria in the guts of rats lessened the damage to the heart and kidneys sometimes seen with hypertension.

Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, affects approximately 1.28 billion adults across the planet, according to the World Health Organization, and is a major cause of death worldwide. While many people are aware that the condition can lead to serious cardiac issues such as heart attack and stroke, hypertension can also cause serious damage to the kidneys and, in fact, is the second leading cause of kidney failure in the United States after diabetes.

Seeking to lessen hypertension's impact on the kidneys, researchers turned to a part of the body that is getting more and more attention in research these days: the gut.

https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/a ... -pressure/

[weatheriscool]

Researchers develop hemostatic agent from mussels and silkworm cocoons to stop organ bleeding
https://phys.org/news/2024-02-hemostati ... coons.html
by Pohang University of Science and Technology

In recent news, there has been a case where a patient experienced pain due to a surgical procedure involving sutures, resulting in the unintended presence of gauze within the patient's body. Gauze is typically employed to control bleeding during medical interventions, aiding in hemostasis. However, when inadvertently left in the body, it can lead to inflammation and infection.

[weatheriscool]

79% of Crohn's disease patients in remission after early intervention
By Paul McClure
February 25, 2024

Giving an immunotherapy drug as soon as possible after diagnosis with Crohn’s disease significantly reduces complications, including the need for surgery by a factor of 10, a clinical study has found. Compared to conventional treatment, which favors delaying the use of advanced therapies, the results suggest re-thinking how the condition is treated.

Falling under the umbrella of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), Crohn’s disease is a painful and disabling chronic disease characterized by flare-ups that can cause progressive bowel damage. The standard treatment for acute flareups is steroids to reduce inflammation. Advanced therapy, which includes immunotherapy drugs, isn’t usually given until after conventional treatments have failed. Despite treatment with the current regime, surgical resection of the bowel is still needed in 17% to 25% of patients within five years of diagnosis.

https://newatlas.com/medical/crohns-disease-treatment/

[weatheriscool]

Inflammation discovery advances the fight against chronic liver disease
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-04- ... liver.html
by QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute

In a world-first, QIMR Berghofer scientists have discovered the mechanism that causes severe inflammation among millions of people with chronic liver disease.

Published in Science Signaling, the discovery identifies how and why elevated ferritin (a protein that normally stores iron within cells) causes inflammation which ultimately leads to liver dysfunction including cirrhosis, liver cancer, and liver failure if left untreated.

Professor Grant Ramm, Deputy Director of QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and head of the Hepatic Fibrosis Laboratory, said this finding could pave the way for new targeted therapeutics to treat both inherited and acquired liver disease.

"The association between inflammation and circulating ferritin levels in chronic liver disease is well known. However, rather than simply acting as a passive marker of inflammation, our research has demonstrated that tissue-derived ferritin stimulates a cascade of events at a cellular level, accelerating liver inflammation," said Professor Ramm.

"Inflammation is integral in driving early liver scarring, known as fibrosis. If undiagnosed or untreated, scarring can increase over time, severely impacting liver function.

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

Dietary treatment found to be more effective than medicines in irritable bowel syndrome
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-04- ... bowel.html
by University of Gothenburg

A study conducted at the University of Gothenburg found that with dietary adjustments, more than 7 out of 10 irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients had significantly reduced symptoms, compared with medications. The work is published in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology journal.

IBS is a common diagnosis that causes abdominal pain, gas and abdominal bloating, diarrhea, and constipation, in various combinations and with varying degrees of severity.

Treatment often consists of dietary advice such as eating small and frequent meals and avoiding excessive intake of food triggers such as coffee, alcohol and fizzy drinks. Patients may also be given medications to improve specific symptoms, such as gas or constipation, diarrhea, bloating or abdominal pain. Antidepressants are sometimes used to improve symptoms in IBS.

The study compared three treatments: two dietary and one based on use of medications. The participants were adult patients with severe or moderate IBS symptoms at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg.

[weatheriscool]

Combining human olfactory receptors with artificial organic synapses and a neural network to sniff out cancer
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05- ... icial.html
by Bob Yirka , Medical Xpress

A team of chemical and biological engineers at Seoul National University in the Republic of Korea has developed a proof-of-concept device that could one day lead to the creation of an artificial nose.

In their study, published in the journal Science Advances, the group combined several types of technology to build a device capable of detecting short-chain fatty acids in air samples.

[Time_Traveller]

Bowel disease breakthrough as researchers make ‘holy grail’ discovery

Wed 5 Jun 2024 16.00 BST



Researchers have discovered a major driver of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and several other immune disorders that affect the spine, liver and arteries, raising hopes for millions of people worldwide.

The breakthrough is particularly exciting because the newly found biological pathway can be targeted by drugs that are already used, with work under way to adapt them to patients with IBD and other conditions.

“What we have found is one of the very central pathways that goes wrong when people get inflammatory bowel disease and this has been something of a holy grail,” said Dr James Lee, the group leader of the genetic mechanisms of disease laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute in London.

Lee added: “Even for pure, fundamental immunology this is a really exciting discovery. But to show this is dysregulated in people who get disease not only gives us a better understanding of the disease, it tells us this is something we can treat.”

More than half a million people in the UK have inflammatory bowel disease, the two main forms of which are Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, with at least 7 million affected globally. They arise when the immune system attacks the bowel, causing an array of debilitating symptoms from abdominal pain and weight loss to diarrhoea and blood in stools. While medicines such as steroids can ease the symptoms, some patients require surgery to remove part of their bowel.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/art ... al-pathway

[weatheriscool]

"Suspended animation" drug could buy time in medical emergencies
By Michael Irving
August 25, 2024

In a medical emergency, quick treatment is critical. But a widely used drug could be repurposed to induce a hibernation-like state, to slow down organ damage and save lives by giving patients more time to reach a hospital.

Medical professionals often refer to the 'Golden Hour' as the crucial period straight after a traumatic injury. While it’s not strictly one hour, the general principle is that the faster medical intervention occurs, the better the patient’s chances of survival.

That’s obviously a big problem for emergencies that occur a long way from a hospital. But a new study from Harvard’s Wyss Institute suggests a new way to extend that so-called Golden Hour, by placing a patient in “biostasis” to slow down their metabolism and prevent permanent organ damage.

https://newatlas.com/biology/suspended- ... ergencies/

[weatheriscool]

Modified liver disease treatment reduces itch side effect in rat experiment

by Justin Jackson , Medical Xpress

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-10- ... ffect.html
Peking University-led researchers have modified an existing treatment for liver disease that does not cause itchiness, a common side effect of existing treatments.

Chronic itch is a debilitating symptom impacting the quality of life in patients with liver diseases like cholestasis. The human G-protein coupled receptor (hX4) activation by bile acids has been implicated in promoting the cholestasis itch, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.

In the paper, "Structure-guided discovery of bile acid derivatives for treating liver diseases without causing itch," published in Cell, researchers identified that 3-sulfated bile acids accumulate in cholestatic patients with itch symptoms and developed a modified version of obeticholic acid (sold as Ocaliva) that lacks a 3-hydroxyl group to counter these effects.