Assay validation and clinical performance of chronic inflammatory and chemokine biomarkers of NASH fibrosis

It's time for this week's read! This week we are featuring an PLOS paper by Rafiq Islam, VP of Bioanalysis and Biomarkers at Amador Bioscience.

📑Read it in full here: https://hubs.la/Q01v9Zjt0

Or, catch the highlights in this summary 👇
Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a chronic metabolic liver disorder that can progress to severe hepatic fibrosis eventually leading to liver transplant. At present liver biopsy is the reference standard for NASH diagnosis but, despite its extensive use, it is considered an aggressive procedure therefore non-invasive alternatives such as the NASH soluble biomarkers will represent a major advance in liver disease management.

In this study, the analytical and clinical validation on a series of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines implicated hepatic inflammation was performed namely: Interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein (CRP), Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNFα), MCP-1, Macrophage Inflammation Protein 1 beta (MIP-1β), eotaxin and Vascular cell Adhesion Molecule 1 (VCAM-1).

The results of the study indicate that while levels of some of the pro-inflammatory biomarkers analyzed did not change with fibrosis severity, the cytokines IL-6 and VCAM-1 were able to discriminate between mild and severe stages of the disease. It is worth mentioning that VCAM-1 outperformed all the other pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines examined in the study.

The new information presented supports the diagnostic use of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines as biomarkers in NASH. These findings may also have clinical relevance and be considered in future clinical trials designed for liver disease management.

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