Research to Find Biomarker for Liver Damage

A collaboration to discover biomarkers that provide better sensitivity and precision in predicting the onset of liver toxicity and disease prognosis has been announced by the US National Institute of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, USA), and Paradigm Genetics, Inc. (Research Triangle Park, NC, USA).

Paradigm will conduct biochemical profiling experiments on tissue and biofluid samples from rat and human subjects exposed to acetaminophen, a common pain reliever. The company will integrate these results with gene expression profiling and histopathology data from NIEHS and clinical data from UNC to discover better diagnostics for assessing liver damage and individual patient response to therapeutic treatment. Paradigm believes that by tracking complex diseases from gene to cell to system, sets of biomarkers indicating liver disease progression at the genetic level can be discovered that can be detected in blood and urine.

"Liver toxicity is one of the leading reasons that drugs fail in clinical trials or are withdrawn from the market,” said Paul Watkins, M.D., a professor of medicine at UNC who is leading the university's participation in the research. "Better markers of liver toxicity will help pharmaceutical companies make more-informed decisions about the possible safety risks associated with new drugs entering clinical development.”




Related Links:
S National Institute of Environmental Health Science
Paradigm
University of North Carolina