Chronic liver damage leads to pathological accumulation of ECM proteins (liver fibrosis). Comprehensive characterization of the human ECM molecular composition is essential for gaining insights into the mechanisms of liver disease. To date, studies of ECM remodeling in human liver diseases have been hampered by the unavailability of purified ECM. Here, we developed a decellularization method to purify ECM scaffolds from human liver tissues. Histological and electron microscopy analyses demonstrated that the ECM scaffolds, devoid of plasma and cellular components, preserved the three-dimensional ECM structure and zonal distribution of ECM components. This method has been then applied on 57 liver biopsies of HCV-infected patients at different stages of liver fibrosis according to METAVIR classification. Label-free nLC-MS/MS proteomics and computation biology were performed to analyze the ECM molecular composition in liver fibrosis progression, thus unveiling protein expression signatures specific for the HCV-related liver fibrotic stages. In particular, the ECM molecular composition of liver fibrosis was found to involve dynamic changes in matrix stiffness, flexibility and density related to the dysregulation of predominant collagen, elastic fibers and minor components with both structural and signaling properties. This study contributes to the understanding of the molecular bases underlying ECM remodeling in liver fibrosis and suggests new molecular targets for fibrolytic strategies.
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4801190 | PMC |
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0151736 | PLOS |
Anal Chem
January 2025
State Key Laboratory of Integrated Optoelectronics, College of Electronics Science and Engineering, Jilin University, No. 2699 Qianjin Street, Changchun, Jilin 130012, P. R. China.
Hepatitis D virus (HDV) significantly influences the progression of liver diseases. Through clinical observations and database analyses, it has been established that patients coinfected with HDV and hepatitis B virus (HBV) experience accelerated progression toward cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and liver failure compared to those infected solely with HBV. A higher viral load correlates with increased replicative activity, enhanced infectivity, and more severe disease manifestations.
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December 2024
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden.
Background/purpose: Dysbiosis of oral microbiota has been reported in late stage of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection with cirrhosis. CHB is characterized by the constant virus-induced liver injury which may lead to liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, some patients show normal liver function without antiviral treatment, associating with favourable prognosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Pharm Sin B
December 2024
Key Laboratory of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics, Research Unit of PK-PD Based Bioactive Components and Pharmacodynamic Target Discovery of Natural Medicine of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
Hydrogen sulfide (HS) is a gas signaling molecule with versatile bioactivities; however, its exploitation for disease treatment appears challenging. This study describes the design and characterization of a novel type of HS donor-drug conjugate (DDC) based on the thio-ProTide scaffold, an evolution of the ProTide strategy successfully used in drug discovery. The new HS DDCs achieved hepatic co-delivery of HS and an anti-fibrotic drug candidate named hydronidone, which synergistically attenuated liver injury and resulted in more sufficient intracellular drug exposure.
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January 2025
Department of Biostatistics and Health Data Science, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
The aim of dynamic prediction is to provide individualized risk predictions over time, which are updated as new data become available. In pursuit of constructing a dynamic prediction model for a progressive eye disorder, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), we propose a time-dependent Cox survival neural network (tdCoxSNN) to predict its progression using longitudinal fundus images. tdCoxSNN builds upon the time-dependent Cox model by utilizing a neural network to capture the nonlinear effect of time-dependent covariates on the survival outcome.
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February 2025
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine III, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
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