EASL

In patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, fat tissue insulin resistance can stimulate the activation of hepatic macrophages, due to an increased flux of free fatty acids. That results in liver damage, Italian researchers report.

Researchers in France have devised a way to reproduce liver fibrogenesis related to HCV infection, or exposure to ethanol of lipids.

Georgios Grammatikos, MD, commented at The International Liver Congress 2015 in Vienna, Austria, "We do think in liver diseases we show the opening of this topic in chronic hepatopathy and we do believe mass spectrometric methods -- in order to identify the levels of single lipids-- as one method of the future."

Despite the wealth of choices physicians have in finding drugs to treat hepatitis C infection, two challenges remain in eradicating the disease-price and lack of global screening for the virus.

Lise Lotte Gluud, MD, DmSc, shared some of the best practices she and her colleagues learned through their own research at The International Liver Congress 2015 Vienna, Austria.

Video Interview: Vinood Patel, PhD, PGCHE, fHEA, FRSC, University of Westminster, London, UK, discussed his hope for hepatologists to better understand the mechanisms that lead from fatty liver to steatohepatitis and subsequently from steatohepatitis to cirrhosis at The International Liver Congress 2015.

Researchers believe they have found a novel therapeutic to target a growth factor pathway that plays a role in liver cancer.

Another investigational diabetes drug appears to have promise for patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, researchers reported at the International Liver Congress in Vienna, Austria.

The explosion in new drugs to treat hepatitis C is leading to predictions the viral infection will no longer be a major health problem. But before that can happen, much has to be done in the realm of public health, researchers said April 25 at the International Liver Congress in Vienna, Austria.

In addition to injection drug use, alcohol consumption puts people at risk of dying from hepatitis C infection by increasing the severity of the disease. A French research study spells out the risks.

The use of interferon to treat hepatitis C infections has fallen out of favor with the advent of new antivirals and drug combinations that have fewer side effects. But in a study presented at the 2015 International Liver Congress in Vienna, Austria, researchers from the UK said that physicians should put interferon back on the treatment menu.

The assumption used to be that after a liver transplant patients would need to take immunosuppressive drugs for years, even for life. A team of German researchers say that for about half of adult patients, that is no longer true.

In this video interview, Camille Barrault, MD, spoke about the implications her work with baclofen could have for the future of liver disease research at The International Liver Congress 2015, Vienna, Austria.

As good news about new treatments for hepatitis C infections continues to dominate the 2015 International Liver Congress, Texas researchers today reported more success with sofosbuvir and daclatasvir.

One cure for polycystic liver disease is a liver transplant-but since the disease is not fatal (the liver continues to do its job despite the problems the condition causes for patients), physicians face a treatment dilemma. A Belgian team offers an objective way to make the decision.

Video Interview: Vinood Patel, PhD, PGCHE, fHEA, FRSC, University of Westminster, London, UK, shared valuable insight regarding chronic alcoholic demographics and biomarkers on the horizon at The International Liver Congress 2015.

A new antiviral combination is showing promise in treating patients with both chronic kidney disease and chronic hepatitis C, Texas researchers reported at the International Liver Congress in Vienna, Austria.

Video Interview: Camille Barrault, MD discussed how her experiences with alcohol dependent patients correlated with her team's current research at The International Liver Congress 2015, Vienna, Austria.

When it comes to developing heart disease, patients who have non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) liver disease are at greater risk of both cardiovascular illness and death than patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease a UK team reported today at the International Liver Congress in Vienna, Austria.

Researchers in India have found a reliable and sensitive marker to predict how close to organ failure seriously ill patients with liver disease may be.

Active immunization for hepatitis B can be a cheaper, safe way to prevent infections that occur when liver transplant recipients are infected by donors' organs.

After partial hepatectomy, the liver does not need an environment rich in microbes and microbial products to regenerate, a Swiss team reports. The finding contradicts earlier studies.

French researchers found that patients with hepatitis C infections due to genotypes 4 and 5 did well on a combination of ledipasvir and sofosbuvir (Harvoni/Gilead.) The drug got FDA approval last year but since then there have been few reports on how well it is doing in the real world.

A new antiviral combination that shows dramatic results in getting a response from patients with both chronic kidney failure and hepatitis C is proving versatile.

Video Interview: Palak Trivedi, BSc, MBBS, MRCP, University in Birmingham, England, spoke about several drug candidates under review working to improve outcomes of liver blood tests at The International Liver Congress 2015, Vienna, Austria.

Translational medicine should work for many patients with liver cancer, a French research team reported this morning at the 2015 International Liver Congress.

In this video interview, Palak Trivedi, BSc, MBBS, MRCP, from the University of Birmingham Centre for Liver Research, United Kingdom, discussed the implications his research findings have for IBD patients at The International Liver Congress 2015 in Vienna, Austria.

So far there are no approved pharmaceuticals for treating a common liver disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). But in a second encouraging drug development reported at the International Liver Congress in Vienna, Austria this morning, Austria, researchers said they like what they see in a trial of Liraglutide (Saxenda/ NovoNordisk).

An investigational diabetes drug called remogliflozin etabonate appears to also show promise for treating a common liver disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and its precursor non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).