Newcastle scientists and medics have developed a new type of genetic blood test that diagnoses scarring in the liver \u2013 even before someone may feel ill. It is the first time an epigenetic signature in blood has been discovered which is diagnostic of the severity of fibrosis for people with Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD).<\/p>\n
NAFLD, caused by being overweight or having diabetes, affects one in three people in the UK and may progress to cirrhosis and liver failure, requiring a transplant.<\/p>\n
The Newcastle team describe the proof of principle research in which they measure specific epigenetic markers to stratify NAFLD patients into mild or severe liver scarring, known as fibrosis.<\/p>\n
Dr Quentin Anstee, Clinical Senior Lecturer at Newcastle University, Consultant Hepatologist within the Newcastle Hospitals and joint senior author explained what it could mean for patients: \u201cThis scientific breakthrough has great promise because the majority of patients show no symptoms.<\/p>\n
\u201cRoutine blood tests can\u2019t detect scarring of the liver and even more advanced non-invasive tests can really only detect scarring at a late stage when it is nearing cirrhosis. We currently have to rely on liver biopsy to measure fibrosis at its early stages – by examining a piece of the liver under the microscope.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that the presence of even mild fibrosis of the liver predicts a worse long-term outcome for patients with NAFLD and so it\u2019s important to be able to detect liver scarring at an early stage.\u201d <\/p>\n
In this first stage of research the team developed the blood analysis in 26 patients with NAFLD. The test detects chemical changes on tiny amounts of \u201ccell-free\u201d DNA that are released into the blood when liver cells are injured. Changes in DNA methylation at genes like PPARγthat controls scar formation are then used to stratify patients by fibrosis severity.<\/p>\n
Senior author Dr Jelena Mann of Newcastle University\u2019s Institute for Cellular Medicine added: \u201cThis is the first time that a DNA methylation \u2018signature\u2019 from the blood has been shown to match the severity of a liver disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt opens up the possibility of an improved blood test for liver fibrosis in the future.\u201d\nNewcastle University<\/link>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Newcastle scientists and medics have developed a new type of genetic blood test that diagnoses scarring in the liver \u2013 even before someone may feel ill. It is the first time an epigenetic signature in blood has been discovered which is diagnostic of the severity of fibrosis for people with Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}