Search results for "Liver"

Beyond the Paradigm of Weight Loss in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: From Pathophysiology to Novel Dietary Approaches

2021

Current treatment recommendations for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) rely heavily on lifestyle interventions. The Mediterranean diet and physical activity, aiming at weight loss, have shown good results in achieving an improvement of this liver disease. However, concerns related to compliance and food accessibility limit the feasibility of this approach, and data on the long-term effects on liver-related outcomes are lacking. Insulin resistance is a central aspect in the pathophysiology of NAFLD; therefore, interventions aiming at the improvement of insulin sensitivity may be preferable. In this literature review, we provide a comprehensive summary of the available evidence on nu…

Estimating the Patient-Specific Relative Stiffness Between a Hepatic Lesion and the Liver Parenchyma

2017

This paper presents a novel non-invasive methodology to obtain the patient-specific relative stiffness between a hepatic lesion and the liver parenchyma in vivo. This relative stiffness can be used as a biomarker about the type of lesion. This biomarker together with the rest of pathological information can be used to plan a biopsy, an image-guide intervention or a radiation therapy. This relative stiffness is estimated by means of the finite element simulation of the breathing process, which is embedded in an optimization routine based on genetic algorithms. This routine was aimed at finding the patient-specific relative stiffness between a hepatic lesion and the liver parenchyma for the p…

Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae Endogenous Endophthalmitis—A Global Emerging Disease

2021

The review aims to document the new emerging hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp) endogenous endophthalmitis (EKE) in terms of incidence, microbiological characterization of the pathogenic agent, associated risk factors, management, and outcomes. Hypervirulent (hv) strains of KP (hvKp) induce invasive liver abscesses (LA) with specific clinical features. Up to 80–90% of cases have hepatic liver abscess as a primary focus of infection, followed by renal or lung hvKp infections. However, the incidence of EKE in patients with KPLA varied between 3.4% (19) and 12.6% (13), with a total of 95 cases of endophthalmitis in 1455 cases of KPLA (6.5%). Severe visual loss was encountered in 75% of c…

2020

Understanding the importance of the gut microbiota (GM) in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has raised the hope for therapeutic microbes. We have shown that high hepatic fat content associated with low abundance of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii in humans and, further, the administration of F. prausnitzii prevented NAFLD in mice. Here, we aimed at targeting F. prausnitzii by prebiotic xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS) to treat NAFLD. First, the effect of XOS on F. prausnitzii growth was assessed in vitro. Then, XOS was supplemented or not with high (HFD, 60% of energy from fat) or low (LFD) fat diet for 12 weeks in Wistar rats (n = 10/group). XOS increased F. prausnitzii growth, having onl…

Safflower Yellow and Its Main Component HSYA Alleviate Diet-Induced Obesity in Mice: Possible Involvement of the Increased Antioxidant Enzymes in Liv…

2020

PurposeOxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis of obesity and its associated disorders. Safflower yellow (SY) and hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA), the natural compounds isolated from Carthamus tinctorius L., has been found to possess antioxidative and anti-obesity properties. The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether SY and its main component HSYA alleviate obesity by the antioxidant effects.MethodsDiet-induced obese (DIO) mice were treated with 200 mg/kg/d SY or HSYA for 10 weeks. Body weight, fat mass, serum biochemical parameters and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities were measured. Glucose and insulin tolerance tests were performed. The expression…

Expanding the Therapeutic Spectrum of Artemisinin: Activity Against Infectious Diseases Beyond Malaria and Novel Pharmaceutical Developments

2016

The interest of Western medicine in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as a source of drug leads/new drugs to treat diseases without available efficient therapies has been dramatically augmented in the last decades by the extensive work and the outstanding findings achieved within this kind of medicine. The practice of TCM over thousands of years has equipped scientists with substantial experience with hundreds of plants that led to the discovery of artemisinin (qinghaosu), which is extracted from the medicinal plant Artemisia annua L. (qinghao). The unexpected success of artemisinin in combating malaria has drawn strong attention from the scientific community towards TCM. Artemisinin was d…

Could allergen-specific immunotherapy benefit from the use of nanocarriers?

2016

Allergen-specific immunotherapy: challenges The total number of people suffering from allergic diseases increased dramatically during recent decades. Allergic reactions of the immediate type (type I hypersensitivity reactions according to classification by Coombs and Gell) involve an overreaction of the immune system and the formation of IgE

Immunomodulatory Therapy of Inflammatory Liver Disease Using Selectin-Binding Glycopolymers

2017

Immunotherapies have the potential to significantly advance treatment of inflammatory disease and cancer, which are in large part driven by immune cells. Selectins control the first step in immune cell adhesion and extravasation, thereby guiding leukocyte trafficking to tissue lesions. We analyzed four different highly specific selectin-binding glycopolymers, based on linear poly(2-hydroxypropyl)-methacrylamide (PHPMA) polymers. These glycopolymers contain either the tetrasaccharide sialyl-LewisX (SLeX) or the individual carbohydrates fucose, galactose, and sialic acids mimicking the complex SLeX binding motive. The glycopolymers strongly bind to primary human macrophages, without activatin…

Recent advances in the use of nanoparticles for allergen-specific immunotherapy

2017

The number of patients suffering from allergic asthma and rhinoconjunctivitis has increased dramatically within the last decades. Allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) is the only available cause-oriented therapy so far. AIT reduces symptoms, but has also a disease-modifying effect. Disadvantages are a long-lasting procedure, and in a few cases potential systemic adverse reactions. Encapsulation of allergens or DNA vaccines into nanostructures may provide advantages compared to the conventional AIT with noncapsulated allergen extracts: The protein/DNA molecule can be protected from degradation, higher local concentrations and targeted delivery to the site of action appear possible, and most…

Insulin Dissociates the Effects of Liver X Receptor on Lipogenesis, Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress, and Inflammation

2016

IF 4.258; International audience; Diabetes is characterized by increased lipogenesis as well as increased endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and inflammation. The nuclear hormone receptor liver X receptor (LXR) is induced by insulin and is a key regulator of lipid metabolism. It promotes lipogenesis and cholesterol efflux, but suppresses endoplasmic reticulum stress and inflammation. The goal of these studies was to dissect the effects of insulin on LXR action. We used antisense oligonucleotides to knock down Lxr alpha in mice with hepatocytespecific deletion of the insulin receptor and their controls. We found, surprisingly, that knock-out of the insulin receptor and knockdown of Lxr alpha …