Barcelona Liver Bioservices (BLB) announced today the presentation of two communications at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of the Liver (AASLD), held in Boston, Massachusetts.
Oral communication #0063 “The pan-PPAR agonist lanifibranor improves portal hypertension and hepatic fibrosis in experimental advanced chronic liver disease” will be presented by Dr Jordi Gracia-Sancho, CEO & CSO of BLB, on Sunday November 10th at 11:00h at the Hynes Auditorium. The study, fruit of the collaboration between BLB and Inventiva, describes for the first time the effects of the pan-PPAR agonist lanifibranor in a pre-clinical model of advanced cirrhosis. Results of the study show that rats receiving lanifibranor exhibited significant improvement in portal hypertension, which was associated with reduction in intrahepatic vascular resistance. Underlying mechanisms of this hemodynamic improvement included amelioration of hepatic stellate cells (which displayed normalization of several cell activation markers) and liver sinusoidal cells (showing improvement in capillarization markers and increment in fenestrae porosity). Importantly, lanifibranor administration led to partial regression of liver fibrosis. “We are glad to describe in detail the benefits of this compound in a pre-clinical model of advanced chronic liver disease, which supports further inhouse research using ExoLiver®: BLB’s proprietary drug-discovery platform that mimics the human sinusoid in vitro”, stated Dr Gracia-Sancho.
Poster #2116 “Hepatic fatty acid profile in chronic liver disease: mechanism of injury and novel therapeutic target” will be displayed on Monday 11th from 8:00 – 17:30h and presented by Zoe Boyer, Senior Associate Scientist at BLB. The study characterized the hepatic fatty acid de-regulation that may occur in advanced chronic liver disease, and investigated the possible therapeutic benefit of administering a nutraceutical rich in docosahexaenoic acid triglycerides (DHA) as a possible approach to re-establish a healthy lipid profile. The results of this project, which was performed in collaboration with BrudyLab, revealed that rats with cirrhosis exhibited a profoundly deregulated liver fatty acid profile, both structurally and enzymatically, indicating that chronic liver injury increases de novo lipogenesis in the liver and alters fatty acid metabolism, pathways that are recognized as important contributors to the development of metabolic disorders. Interestingly, when treated with BrudyLab-DHA, cirrhotic animals presented a remarkable improvement in their hepatic fatty acid composition, reaching values comparable to those of healthy animals.
Barcelona Liver Bioservices Team will be in Boston during the entire AASLD meeting. Please contact us to set up a private meeting to discuss how BLB can assist you to foster the development of new therapeutics for liver disease, including NASH and cirrhosis.