Publications by authors named "Craig J McClain"

Inflammatory bowel disease is associated with several genetic risk loci. Loss-of-function mutation in the α1,2-fucosyltransferase (fut2) gene, which alters fucosylation on the surface of intestinal epithelial cells, is one example. However, whether bacterial fucosylation can contribute to gut inflammation is unclear.

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Background: Alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH) is the clinical manifestation of alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD). AH is a complex disease encompassing the dysregulation of many cells and cell subpopulations. This study used a hepatic spatial transcriptomic and proteomic approach (10X Genomics Visium) to identify hepatic cell populations and their associated transcriptomic and proteomic alterations in human AH.

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Background: Intestine epithelial hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) plays a critical role in maintaining gut barrier function. The aim of this study was to determine whether pharmacological or genetic activation of intestinal HIF-1α ameliorates western diet-induced metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease.

Methods: Metabolic effects of pharmacological activation of HIF-1α by dimethyloxalylglycine were evaluated in HIF-α luciferase reporter (ODD-luc) mice.

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Metabolic dysfunction in the liver represents a predominant feature in the early stages of alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD). However, the mechanisms underlying this are only partially understood. To investigate the metabolic characteristics of the liver in ALD, we did a relative quantification of polar metabolites and lipids in the liver of mice with experimental ALD using untargeted metabolomics and untargeted lipidomics.

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Article Synopsis
  • Cannabidiol (CBD) is a non-psychoactive compound from the cannabis plant that interacts with various receptors and has antioxidant properties.
  • Research suggests that CBD has significant effects on the gastrointestinal (GI) system, influencing intestinal permeability, the microbiome, and immune responses, making it promising for treating GI disorders like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
  • Future studies are essential to understand how CBD works in the gut and to conduct well-designed clinical trials to investigate its full therapeutic potential for both GI and non-GI related disorders.
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Article Synopsis
  • * The main treatment for severe alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH) is corticosteroids, but not all patients respond effectively to this treatment.
  • * The article discusses key nutritional concepts for ALD and new insights into predicting how patients will respond to corticosteroids and their overall prognosis.
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Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) is a prevalent medical problem with limited effective treatment strategies. Although many biological processes contributing to ALD have been elucidated, a complete understanding of the underlying mechanisms is still lacking. The current study employed a proteomic approach to identify hepatic changes resulting from ethanol (EtOH) consumption and the genetic ablation of the formyl peptide receptor 2 (FPR2), a G-protein coupled receptor known to regulate multiple signaling pathways and biological processes, in a mouse model of ALD.

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Alterations in the gut-microbiome-brain axis are increasingly being recognized to be involved in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis. However, the functional consequences of enteric dysbiosis linking gut microbiota and brain pathology in AD progression remain largely undetermined. The present work investigated the causal role of age-associated temporal decline in butyrate-producing bacteria and butyrate in the etiopathogenesis of AD.

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Article Synopsis
  • Alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH) has a high mortality rate and challenges in identifying patients at risk, prompting research into the extracellular matrix as a potential predictor for mortality.
  • Plasma samples from 62 AH patients revealed over 1600 peptide features linked to significant proteins, with notable changes corresponding to disease severity and associated with specific proteases.
  • Three peptides showed strong links to 90-day mortality, leading to a promising noninvasive method for predicting outcomes in AH patients that could enhance current prognostic tools.
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Background And Aims: In a recent trial, patients with severe alcohol-associated hepatitis treated with anakinra plus zinc (A+Z) had lower survival and higher acute kidney injury (AKI) rates versus prednisone (PRED). We characterize the clinical factors and potential mechanisms associated with AKI development in that trial.

Approach And Results: Data from 147 participants in a multicenter randomized clinical trial (74 A+Z, 73 PRED) were analyzed.

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  • Dietary doses of copper, in combination with fructose, impact metabolic dysfunction and contribute to MASLD through the gut-liver axis.
  • A study on rats identified 2847 differentially expressed proteins in the ileum, highlighting specific pathways affected by varying copper levels and fructose.
  • Key findings indicate that different copper-fructose diets uniquely alter pathways related to oxidative stress, arachidonic acid metabolism, and gut barrier integrity, which are crucial for understanding MASLD development.
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Background: Virtually the entire spectrum of liver disease is observed in association with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM); indeed, T2DM is now the most common cause of liver disease in the U.S. We conducted a pilot study to investigate the relevance of increased microbial translocation and systemic inflammation in the development of liver injury in patients with T2DM.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the role of fatty acid desaturase 1 (FADS1) in metabolic diseases, specifically how reduced FADS1 activity is linked to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).
  • The researchers used adeno-associated virus serotype 8 (AAV8) to overexpress FADS1 in rats fed different diets and found that this overexpression improved metabolic health, including better glucose tolerance and lower triglyceride levels.
  • The results indicate that enhancing FADS1 activity can be a potential treatment for MASLD, particularly by inhibiting harmful fatty acid processes in diet-induced conditions.
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Diagnostic challenges continue to impede development of effective therapies for successful management of alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH), creating an unmet need to identify noninvasive biomarkers for AH. In murine models, complement contributes to ethanol-induced liver injury. Therefore, we hypothesized that complement proteins could be rational diagnostic/prognostic biomarkers in AH.

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Lipids play a significant role in life activities and participate in the biological system through different pathways. Although comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (2DLC-MS) has been developed to profile lipid abundance changes, lipid identification and quantification from 2DLC-MS data remain a challenge. We created , open-source software for lipid assignment and isotopic peak stripping of the 2DLC-MS data.

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Background: It is well established that females are more susceptible to the toxic effects of alcohol, although the exact mechanisms are still poorly understood. Previous studies noted that alcohol reduces the expression of mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase 1 (MKP1), a negative regulator of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) in the liver. However, the role of hepatocyte- specific MKP1 in the pathogenesis of alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) remains uncharacterized.

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Background & Aims: Severe alcohol-associated hepatitis (SAH) is associated with high 90-day mortality. Glucocorticoid therapy for 28 days improves 30- but not 90-day survival. We assessed the efficacy and safety of a combination of anakinra, an IL-1 antagonist, plus zinc (A+Z) compared to prednisone using the Day-7 Lille score as a stopping rule in patients with SAH.

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Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a growing problem in the United States, contributing to a range of liver disease as well as cardiovascular disease. ALT is the most widely used liver chemistry for NAFLD evaluation. We hypothesized that the normal range many laboratories use was too high, missing many patients with clinically important steatosis and/or fibrosis.

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Gut microbiota function has numerous effects on humans and the diet humans consume has emerged as a pivotal determinant of gut microbiota function. Here, a new concept that gut microbiota can be trained by diet-derived exosome-like nanoparticles (ELNs) to release healthy outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) is introduced. Specifically, OMVs released from garlic ELN (GaELNs) trained human gut Akkermansia muciniphila (A.

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Purpose Of Review: To delineate common and uncommon dietary and nutritional deficiencies in individuals with chronic heavy alcohol use and alcohol use disorder and to highlight important advances in the nutrition field in patients ranging from those with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and no liver disease to those with decompensated alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD).

Recent Findings: Patients with AUD may have nutritional deficiencies, especially isolated nutrient deficiencies, such as thiamine or zinc deficiencies. This should not be surprising, as alcohol is a major source of "empty calories.

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Background: Severe alcoholic hepatitis (AH) has a high short-term mortality rate. The MELD assesses disease severity and mortality; however, it is not specific for AH. We screened plasma samples from patients with severe AH for biomarkers of multiple pathological processes and identified predictors of short-term mortality.

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Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) is a serious public health problem with limited pharmacologic options. The goal of the current study was to investigate the efficacy of pharmacologic inhibition of soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH), an enzyme involved in lipid metabolism, in experimental ALD, and to examine the underlying mechanisms. C57BL/6J male mice were subjected to acute-on-chronic ethanol (EtOH) feeding with or without the sEH inhibitor 4-[[trans-4-[[[[4-trifluoromethoxy phenyl]amino]carbonyl]-amino]cyclohexyl]oxy]-benzoic acid (TUCB).

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Purpose: Chemokine-driven leukocyte infiltration and sustained inflammation contribute to alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD). Elevated hepatic CCL2 expression, seen in ALD, is associated with disease severity. However, mechanisms of CCL2 regulation are not completely elucidated.

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Background: Cyclic nucleotides are second messengers, which play significant roles in numerous biological processes. Previous work has shown that cAMP and cGMP signaling regulates various pathways in liver cells, including Kupffer cells, hepatocytes, hepatic stellate cells, and cellular components of hepatic sinusoids. Importantly, it has been shown that cAMP levels and enzymes involved in cAMP homeostasis are affected by alcohol.

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