Cracking the Enigma of Fatty Liver Disease

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) affects one out of four people in the world, making it the most prevalent of all liver diseases and a major public health problem. The disease is defined by abnormally increased fat deposition in liver cells, which can progress with the addition of inflammation and cell damage to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), leading to progressive stages of fibrosis and, finally, cirrhosis. Early NASH is characterized by fat and inflammation associated with minimal amounts of fibrosis, and late NASH is associated with advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis. NAFLD is most closely associated with obesity and diabetes, although there are likely other genetic, nutritional, and environmental factors involved in the pathogenesis.

Although there are no approved pharmacologic treatments for NAFLD, NASH, or cirrhosis, there are over a dozen different companies researching possible treatments. However, the development of drug therapies for the NAFLD spectrum of disease is hampered by a number of challenges:

• the chronic nature of the disorder and ultimately low morbidity and mortality,
• the impact of weight loss on the disease,
• a complex and poorly defined pathophysiology,
• the lack of easily administered diagnostic testing, and
• the evolving status of regulatory endpoints.

Read more: Cracking the Enigma of Fatty Liver Disease

The results of multiple clinical trials over the next few years will clarify potential therapies and target
pathways.  © Sebastian Kaulitzki/Fotolia]

Source: genengnews

Your Lifespan can be Reduced by Mood and Stress.

A study, published this week in Molecular Psychiatry, finds the genetic basis of a poorly understood phenomenon. Mood and stress are known to contribute to shortened lifespans, and researchers may now have identified the genes that are involved.

A team from Indiana University School of Medicine and the Scripps Research Institute, CA, conducted a multifaceted project investigating the genetic basis of premature aging in response to stress and psychiatric illness.

Using human participants and Caenorhabditis elegans, one of planet Earth's most-studied worms, the researchers delved into this intractable question.

They managed to identify a raft of genes that seem to control the impact of mood and stress responses on the longevity of an organism.

Read more: Your Lifespan can be Reduced by Mood and Stress.

An in-depth study charts the genetics involved in the shortening of life in

response to mood and stress.

Source: medicalnewstoday