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From: Cactus Jammies on 24 Aug 2008 09:43
Not sure where I first saw this, hoping that it was not posted here yet.
There seems to be a trend to try and deal with effects of Hep C on the liver
for those unable to kill the dragon.

- cactus jammies





http://www.news-medical.net/?id=40407

The drug warfarin may help prevent liver failure in thousands of
people with Hepatitis C, according to new research.
In a study published tomorrow (1 August) in the Journal of
Thrombosis and Haemostasis, researchers show that warfarin reduces the
scarring on the liver caused by Hepatitis C. This scarring, or fibrosis,
replaces normal liver cells and can lead to cirrhosis of the liver and
ultimately liver failure.

Following the new findings in mouse models, the Imperial College
London researchers are now embarking on a clinical trial of warfarin as a
treatment for people with Hepatitis C, funded by the Medical Research
Council (MRC).

There are an estimated 300,000 people in the UK with chronic
Hepatitis C. The disease progresses much more quickly in some patients than
in others and around one in five of those infected will develop cirrhosis.

Treatment to clear the infection is currently effective in only
around 50 percent of patients and can have considerable unpleasant side
effects such as fatigue, nausea and depression. If this treatment fails,
there are no currently effective therapies to slow the progression of
fibrosis.

The new research looks at how warfarin affects the progression
of fibrosis in mice with chronic liver injury. Warfarin is already used to
prevent and treat blood clots in people with artificial heart valves, deep
vein thrombosis, and a host of other conditions.

A previous study by the same researchers demonstrated that in
Hepatitis C, scarring of the liver accelerates in those patients who are
prone to form blood clots. This led the researchers to believe that
warfarin's anti-clotting properties might enable the drug to fight the
disease.

The new study showed that treatment with warfarin significantly
reduces the progression of fibrosis in normal mice with chronic liver
injury. It also shows that warfarin reduces the progression of fibrosis in
mice with chronic liver injury and a genetic mutation known as Factor V
Leiden (FVL), which causes fibrosis to progress at a much faster rate than
usual because it amplifies the body's clotting mechanisms.

Professor Mark Thursz, one of the authors of the study from the
Division of Medicine at Imperial College London, said: "At the moment there
are a great many people with Hepatitis C who have no treatment options left
and it would transform their lives if we could prevent them from developing
liver failure. We are looking forward to seeing the results of our upcoming
trial in humans now that we've had such promising results in the trial in
mice."

Dr Quentin Anstee, an MRC Clinical Research Fellow and the
corresponding author of the study from Imperial College London, added: "If
we have positive results from the new trial, we will have a potential
treatment that is already available and very cheap, and which should be safe
enough for people to take. If we are successful in Hepatitis C patients, we
are hopeful that such treatment might benefit people with liver damage from
other causes, and this is something we would be keen to study further."

The researchers are recruiting 90 patients for the new trial who
have undergone a liver transplant as a result of liver failure caused by
hepatitis C. A third of such patients progress very rapidly to fibrosis
following transplantation.

The researchers hope that treating these patients with warfarin
will prevent this liver damage and improve their prognosis. Transplant
patients have a liver biopsy every year following transplantation to assess
their progress, and the researchers will analyse data from this biopsy to
establish the effectiveness of the warfarin treatment. The two-year trial
will take place across five centres including Imperial College Healthcare
NHS Trust, which has integrated with Imperial College London to form the
UK's first Academic Health Science Centre.

The trial is taking place in transplant patients because the
researchers estimate that it would take 10-15 years to conduct a trial in
patients in whom the disease was progressing at a normal rate.

http://www.imperial.ac.uk

yer buddy cactus jammies



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