April 23, 2015, Vienna, Austria: As many as half of people infected with viral hepatitis have suffered discrimination and one-quarter admit that family members have avoided physical contact with them after finding out they had the infection. A shocking patient survey presented at The International Liver CongressTM 2015 has shown the devastating impact the infection has on their daily lives. Research conducted with the Ministry of Health in Brazil questioned 1,217 people infected with hepatitis B or C in Europe and America using an online survey tool. The aim of the research ...

April 23, 2015, Vienna, Austria: Data presented today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015 demonstrates that remogliflozin etabonate, an investigational drug in type 2 diabetes, is a potential treatment option for the management of patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In clinical studies, remogliflozin etabonate was shown to significantly improve insulin sensitivity and beta cell function, as well as reduce body weight and levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT). In pre-clinical studies, remogliflozin ...

April 23, 2015, Vienna, Austria: New data from an ongoing Phase III trial revealed today at The International Liver CongressTM 2015 show that the use of hepatitis C immune globulin (HCIG, Civacir®) can effectively prevent hepatitis C virus (HCV) recurrence in patients following a liver transplant (LT). The data demonstrate that intravenous Civacir given both peri- and post-LT prevents HCV-reinfection in patients who also received antiviral therapy (AVT) before their transplant operation. Civacir is a hepatitis C immune globulin (HCIG) produced from pooled plasma ...

April 23, 2015, Vienna, Austria: Results from a double-blind, placebo-controlled study of silymarin, which is derived from the milk thistle plant, have shown that this herbal remedy may be a useful treatment option for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). An interim analysis of the study, revealed today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015, shows a significantly higher percentage of patients experienced NASH resolution and improvement in fibrosis after 48 weeks of treatment with silymarin compared to placebo. NASH occurs when the liver becomes inflamed ...

April 23, 2015, Vienna, Austria: Many countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region are facing limitations in conducting chronic viral hepatitis disease surveillance, assessing the burden of disease and measuring the impact of interventions, according to results revealed today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015. The study highlights that less than one-third (27%) of WHO European Member States have national strategies in place that contain a surveillance component. Furthermore, only 64% have a national surveillance system for chronic hepatitis ...

April 23, 2015, Vienna, Austria: A new study revealed today at The International Liver CongressTM 2015 shows that sofosbuvir (SOF)-based regimens are effective and well tolerated in hepatitis C and HIV co-infected, cirrhotic patients. Sustained virologic response at 4 weeks (SVR4) was observed in 98% of patients and in 95% at 12 weeks (SVR12). The results are particularly encouraging as this patient group is considered difficult-to-treat and has a high mortality rate. The study included 142 patients of different hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes who were initiated onto ...

April 23, 2015, Vienna, Austria: Interim data presented today at The International Liver CongressTM 2015 from the HCV-TARGET study show that all-oral, direct-acting antiviral therapy for hepatitis C (HCV) is well tolerated and highly effective in patients with decompensated cirrhosis. Sustained virologic response (SVR) at 4 weeks was shown to be: sofosbuvir/ribavirin: 75%; sofosbuvir/simeprevir: 77%; sofosbuvir/simeprevir/ribavirin: 81%. These results demonstrate that all-oral, direct-acting antiviral regimens are better tolerated and achieve higher rates of SVR in HCV ...

April 23, 2015, Vienna, Austria: Data revealed today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015 highlights the impact of delaying treatment for the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Researchers found that treatment delays have a serious detrimental effect on treatment efficacy, increasing the risk of morbidity and mortality among patients. The study was conducted using retrospective patient data from the Veterans Administration in the USA to estimate the impact on risk of morbidity and death depending on whether treatment was initiated before or after a patient's FIB4 levels ...

April 23, 2015, Vienna, Austria: Results revealed today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015 demonstrate current treatment and prevention programmes need to be scaled up in order to make elimination of hepatitis B virus (HBV) possible. The study conducted by Imperial College Scientists, highlights that if existing interventions, such as infant hepatitis B vaccination and treatment programmes, were scaled up, the number of new chronic HBV infections could be reduced by 90% and mortality levels could be reduced by 65% by 2030. Globally, this would mean 13 million ...

April 23, 2015, Vienna, Austria: A new device has demonstrated it has the potential to enhance the viability of donor livers for transplantation. Results revealed today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015 show that the transportable machine perfusion (MP) Airdrive® is able to effectively maintain the quality of livers derived from donation after circulatory death (DCD). Many centers are reluctant to use DCD livers since they might jeopardize graft function post-transplantation. Contrary to 'classical' heart-beating donors (HBD), livers from DCDs undergo ...

April 23, 2015, Vienna, Austria: New data presented today at The International Liver CongressTM 2015 show that the intensity of weight loss induced by lifestyle changes is strongly linked with the grade of improvement of various histological features of NASH. Weight loss of more than 7% results in a positive impact on most histological parameters; however, to induce steatohepatitis resolution, and fibrosis and portal inflammation improvements, over 10% weight loss is needed. The study was conducted in 293 patients with histologically proven NASH. Patients were treated ...

April 23, 2015, Vienna, Austria: A novel immunotherapeutic in early development for chronic hepatitis B (CHB), TG1050, has been shown to reach the clinical goals that are considered to be the hallmarks of a cure for CHB, according to results revealed today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015. The hallmarks of a CHB cure are: Elimination of HBsAg - the surface antigen of the hepatitis B virus, and HBsAg seroconversion - which occurs when a specific antibody becomes detectable in the blood and the corresponding antigen becomes undetectable, in this case ...

April 23, 2015, Vienna, Austria: Results from a new study demonstrate that chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with a higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and significantly increases cost of care and length of time in hospital. Based on these results, revealed today at The International Liver CongressTM 2015, study investigators conclude that chronic HCV infection should be considered a risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases. In the study, inpatient prevalence of diagnosed HCV infection was 1.9%. For these patients, ...

April 23, 2015, Vienna, Austria: Data revealed today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015 show that the long-term use of entecavir (ETV) or tenofovir (TDF) results in excellent 5-year survival for Caucasian patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), with more than 95% of patients surviving at 5 years and a significant proportion of deaths coming from liver-unrelated causes. Long-term ETV or TDF therapy is the most common treatment option in CHB of any severity, but efficacy data have been mainly based upon on-therapy virological remission rates. In this 9-centre, ...

23 April 2015, Austria, Vienna: Results revealed today at the International Liver Congress™ 2015 show that the daily consumption of capsaicin, the active compound of chilli peppers, was found to have beneficial effects on liver damage. In the study, capsaicin was found to reduce the activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) in mice models. HSCs are the major cell type involved in liver fibrosis, which is the formation of scar tissue in response to liver damage. The mice were split into two groups and received capsaicin in their food: After three days of bile ...

April 23, 2015, Austria, Vienna: Results revealed today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015, show that in patients with alcohol-induced liver disease (ALD), Baclofen has a positive impact on alcohol consumption and overall measures of liver function and harm. ALD is a major cause of alcohol-related mortality and helping patients with ALD to stop drinking is a primary goal of treatment. The primary aim of this study was to measure the effectiveness and tolerability of Baclofen in maintaining abstinence in this difficult to treat group, and to determine if this ...

April 23, 2015, Vienna, Austria: A study revealed today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015 has demonstrated that alginate-enriched bread has the potential to inhibit fat digestion and circulatory lipids in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Alginates are polysaccharides extracted from brown algae that are non-digestible in the upper gastrointestinal tract. Specific alginates are able to inhibit the activity of pancreatic lipase and thus reduce fat digestion and absorption. This study set out to determine if alginate-enriched bread inhibits ...

April 23, 2015, Vienna, Austria: Data revealed today at The International Liver CongressTM 2015 show that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) plays a role in the early stages of coronary atherosclerosis and in its more severe form it can also promote the development of coronary artery calcification (CAC). Findings showed that the impact of NAFLD varies significantly depending on the severity of CAC at baseline. In those without CAC, NAFLD significantly affected the development of atherosclerosis; however, in patients with existing CAC at baseline NAFLD did not ...

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers say that while a large majority of newborns are exposed in their earliest days to bisphenol A (BPA), a much-studied chemical used in plastics and in food and soda can linings, they can chemically alter and rid their bodies of it. The findings, published April 23 in The Journal of Pediatrics, challenge the current thinking on BPA toxicology. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that more than 92 percent of Americans ages six and older have BPA in their bodies, most likely through the consumption ...

Shortages of key antibiotics, including gold-standard therapies and drugs used to treat highly resistant infections, are on the rise, according to a new study of shortages from 2001 to 2013 published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and available online. The trends raise serious concerns about the effects on patient care, particularly for infections without effective alternative treatment options. "We found a tremendous number of drugs that are used to treat life threatening infections that just were not available," said study author Larissa May, MD, of George Washington ...

Rapid treatment with a new anti-inflammatory could have a major impact on recovery from spinal cord injury, University of Queensland researchers have found. UQ School of Biomedical Sciences' Dr Marc Ruitenberg and PhD student Ms Faith Brennan said they made the discovery during laboratory trials with an experimental drug. Ms Brennan said that excessive inflammation caused additional damage in spinal cord injuries and hindered recovery. "We found that a molecule called C5aR exacerbates inflammation and tissue damage after spinal cord injury," she said. "Our study ...

Tick-borne diseases are a major public health problem around the world. Ticks carry and transmit a variety of microbes that cause disease. These illnesses, which include Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and Tularemia, can cause a variety of symptoms, often serious and sometimes deadly. Now, just in time for spring and the explosion of ticks in forests, lawns and trails, a new study by researchers from China and the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) has uncovered a never-before-seen illness transmitted by ticks. It's possible that the disease ...

Researchers have pinpointed a primary cause of a rare skull disorder in infants, and the discovery could help wounded soldiers, car-wreck victims and other patients recover from disfiguring facial injuries. "This has a lot more implication than what we initially thought," said Yang Chai, a lead researcher on the study at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC. "We can take advantage of these stem cells not only to repair a birth defect, but to provide facial regeneration for veterans or other people who have suffered traumatic injury." Chai predicted such treatment ...

SAN FRANCISCO--More than 143 million Americans living in the 48 contiguous states are exposed to potentially damaging ground shaking from earthquakes, with as many as 28 million people likely to experience strong shaking during their lifetime, according to research discussed at the annual meeting of Seismological Society of America. The report puts the average long-term value of building losses from earthquakes at $4.5 billion per year, with roughly 80 percent of losses attributed to California, Oregon and Washington. "This analysis of data from the new National Seismic ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University study sheds light on how cell damage is reversed by the cancer drug decitabine and identifies a potential biomarker that could indicate a patient's stage of cancer and response to treatment. A team led by Joseph Irudayaraj, professor of agricultural and biological engineering, showed that decitabine combats some of the effects of cancer by taking the place of the nucleotide cytosine at specific locations on a replicating DNA strand. By mimicking cytosine, the drug helps "tame" cancerous cells by turning on tumor suppressor genes ...