Publications by authors named "Aaron M Fullerton"

Recent years have seen the creation and popularization of various complexmodels (CIVMs), such as organoids and organs-on-chip, as a technology with the potential to reduce animal usage in pharma while also enhancing our ability to create safe and efficacious drugs for patients. Public awareness of CIVMs has increased, in part, due to the recent passage of the FDA Modernization Act 2.0.

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Use of the fluoroquinolone antibiotic trovafloxacin (TVX) was restricted due to idiosyncratic, drug-induced liver injury (IDILI). Previous studies demonstrated that tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF) and TVX interact to cause death of hepatocytes in vitro that was associated with prolonged activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), activation of caspases 9 and 3, and DNA damage. The purpose of this study was to explore further the mechanism by which TVX interacts with TNF to cause cytotoxicity.

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Article Synopsis
  • Clinical evidence suggests that serious drug-induced liver injuries may be caused by the adaptive immune system reacting to drug-protein complexes, a condition known as drug-induced allergic hepatitis, though specific animal models have been lacking.
  • In a study with female Balb/cJ mice, researchers observed liver damage and immune cell infiltration after exposure to halothane, indicating that immune tolerance in the liver can be disrupted.
  • The findings point to potential mechanisms for drug-induced allergic hepatitis that could help develop animal models for further research and suggest that a breakdown in liver tolerance might make individuals more susceptible to this condition.
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Unlabelled: Liver eosinophilia has been associated with incidences of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) for more than 50 years, although its role in this disease has remained largely unknown. In this regard, it was recently shown that eosinophils played a pathogenic role in a mouse model of halothane-induced liver injury (HILI). However, the signaling events that drove hepatic expression of eosinophil-associated chemokines, eotaxins, eosinophil infiltration, and subsequent HILI were unclear.

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Idiosyncratic drug-induced liver injury (IDILI) continues to be a significant human health problem. IDILI is characterized as occurring in a minority of individuals exposed to a drug, yet it accounts for as much as 17% of all cases of acute liver failure. Despite these concerns, the mechanisms underlying IDILI remain unknown.

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For many liver diseases, including viral and autoimmune hepatitis, immune cells play an important role in the development and progression of liver injury. Concanavalin A (Con A) administration to rodents has been used as a model of immune-mediated liver injury resembling human autoimmune hepatitis. 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) has been demonstrated to alter the development of immune-mediated diseases.

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Inflammation plays a major role in immune-mediated liver injury, and exposure to environmental pollutants such as 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) has been reported to alter the inflammatory response as well as affect immune cell activity. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that TCDD pretreatment exacerbates hepatotoxicity in a murine model of immune-mediated liver injury induced by concanavalin A (Con A) administration. Mice were pretreated with 30 μg/kg TCDD or vehicle control on day zero and then given either Con A or saline intravenously on day four.

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Article Synopsis
  • Severe liver damage from halothane (HAL) occurs in a small percentage of patients, with female sex identified as a risk factor; the mechanism behind this is unclear.
  • In a study with female BALB/cJ mice, HAL treatment led to significant liver injury that varied with the estrous cycle, while ovariectomized (OVX) mice experienced only mild injury.
  • Elevated levels of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) and activated natural killer (NK) cells were linked to severe liver injury, indicating that these immune responses are critical factors in the heightened sensitivity of females to HAL-induced hepatotoxicity.
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The use of the fluoroquinolone antibiotic trovafloxacin (TVX) was severely restricted in 1999 due to its association with idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity. Previously, we reported that a nontoxic dose of TVX interacts with a nontoxic dose of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to cause robust hepatocellular injury in mice. This interaction with LPS was not seen in mice treated with levofloxacin (LVX), a fluoroquinolone not associated with hepatotoxicity in people.

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