Clinical Research Directory

Changes in Bile Acids and Microbiota in Patients With Hepatitis D Treated With Bulvertide

HDV is an RNA virus that infects only in the presence of HBV, affecting about 13% of HBsAg carriers. In Italy, prevalence ranges from 3.2% to 9.3%. It increases the risk of cirrhosis, fulminant hepatitis, and HCC, particularly in high-risk groups (HIV, HCV, drug users, dialysis patients). Until 2020, pegIFN was the only therapy; since 2022, bulevirtide (BLV) has been available, blocking viral entry into hepatocytes and reducing HDV RNA and liver stiffness, with efficacy in 45-48% of patients, though the optimal treatment duration remains uncertain. The gut microbiota and bile acids also play a role in fibrosis and cirrhosis progression: dysbiosis, typical in cirrhotic patients, alters bile acid metabolism and increases intrahepatic toxicity.

Liver Cancer Prevention Randomized Control Trial

To determine the effectiveness of a behaviorally-based tailored disease management intervention in patients with fibrosis or steatosis and risk factors for cirrhosis.

Effects of Empagliflozin on Fibrosis and Cirrhosis in Chronic Hepatitis B Patients

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) affects 257million individuals worldwide. In 2017, it caused around 39.7 million cases of cirrhosis and 0.4 million cirrhosis-related deaths in 2017. However, there is no specific treatment for liver fibrosis/cirrhosis. Although nucleos(t)ide analogues (NAs) profoundly suppress viral replication, fibrosis/cirrhosis progression can still occur in NA-treated patients. Sodium-glucose cotransporter type-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are antidiabetic drugs that may prevent fibrosis/cirrhosis progression by reducing hepatic steatosis/inflammation, dampening renin-angiotensin aldosterone system (RAAS) activation, and reducing fluid retention, effects of which are independent of glycemic control. Clinical studies in diabetic patients show SGLT2 inhibitors reduce hepatis steatosis/inflammation, regress ascites (a cirrhotic complication), and improve liver function parameters and survival prognosis in terms of model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score. There are currently no randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on role of SGLT2 inhibitors in preventing fibrosis/cirrhosis progression in CHB patients. Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) and transient elastography (TE) are non-invasive techniques for liver stiffness measurement (LSM), although MRE is more accurate than TE. The investigators propose a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial to compare effect of empagliflozin (an SGLT2 inhibitor) with placebo (1:1 ratio) in preventing fibrosis progression in both diabetic and non-diabetic NA-treated CHB patients with significant/advanced fibrosis or compensated cirrhosis. 108 patients will be randomly sampled from our pre-existing TE database. Empagliflozin 10mg daily will be given to treatment arm. Placebo pills will be manufactured identical in appearance to empagliflozin. Subjects will receive active or placebo pills for three years, and undergo clinical, anthropometric and laboratory assessments (at baseline, weeks 8, 16, and every 4 months thereafter). They will undergo LSM by TE at baseline, end of first, second and third year, and by MRE at baseline and end of third year. Primary outcome is difference in change to liver stiffness (measured by MRE) from baseline between the two groups at the end of third year. The study results will determine whether SGLT2 inhibitors can prevent hepatic fibrosis/cirrhosis progression in NA-treated CHB patients.

Endoscopic Ultrasound Shear Wave Elastography Study

This study shall be a prospective, multicenter, single arm, consecutive, interventional study conducted in a post-market setting using commercially available devices. Consecutive, eligible patients with clinical suspicion of MASLD or MASH reporting for an endoscopic ultrasound and liver biopsy for evaluation of fibrosis will be enrolled. EUS Shear Wave Elastography and Attenuation Imaging technologies will be compared to liver biopsy and FibroScan results and other non-invasive fibrosis screening modalities . The data collected during this study will be evaluated in accordance with the procedures set forth in the protocol. The main question\[s\] it aims to answer are: * Establish optimal cutoffs for EUS-SWE in reference to liver biopsies staging system for liver fibrosis * Evaluate the diagnostic performance of EUS-SWE compared to FibroScan (VCTE) and to other non-invasive fibrosis screening modalities (screening scores). Participants will undergo: * Endoscopic Ultrasound with Shear Wave Elastography (SWE) and Attenuation Imaging (ATI) * Liver biopsy * FibroScan

Prevalence of NAFLD and Advanced Fibrosis in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes

The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in patients with type 1 diabetes receiving care at Joslin clinic using noninvasive imaging and serum-based methods with the goal of identifying high-risk patients with advanced fibrosis who should be prioritized for specialty referral

Screening for Chronic Liver Diseases in General Population

Improving the care of patients with liver diseases in primary care and will allow patients with chronic liver disease to benefit from a course appropriate care.

Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Zambia

Chronic hepatitis B virus infection is a common condition in Zambia. Among Zambian blood donors, up to 8% are chronically infected with HBV. Despite the burden, awareness of HBV is low in Zambia and the Ministry of Health is in early stages of development of guidelines for HBV screening, treatment, and prevention. The purpose of this clinical cohort study is to characterize the clinical features of chronic HBV infection at UTH and describe treatment and care outcomes. The investigators will enroll 500 adults and follow the cohort for up to 5 years to assess short and long-term viral, serologic, and liver outcomes such as cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Liver Fibrosis in Zambian HIV-HBV Co-infected Patients

A cohort of adults with HIV-HBV co-infection will be created in Lusaka, Zambia, to describe the short and long-term (up to 10 years of follow-up) HBV and liver outcomes, including the effectiveness of current therapies, and to identify the risk factors for major endpoints of interest, including HCC and HBV functional cure. This cohort will also create a pool of potential participants for in-depth mechanistic studies and clinical trials of novel HBV cure drugs.

COffee and Metabolites Modulating the Gut MicrobiomE in Colorectal caNCER

This is research study is assessing the effects of 6-g daily use of freeze-dried instant coffee on liver fat and fibrosis and the gut microbiome and metabolome in patients who have completed routine treatment (including surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy) for stage I-III colorectal cancer.

LITMUS Imaging Study

The LITMUS Imaging Study is a prospectively recruited, observational study of patients with histologically characterised non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). It aims to evaluate the diagnostic performance of imaging biomarkers (ultrasound elastography and magnetic resonance biomarkers) against NAFLD histological scores in a cross-sectional analysis and the natural history of NAFLD in a longitudinal study.

Safety and Effectiveness of Sulfasalazine in the Treatment of Liver Fibrosis/Cirrhosis.

This is a controlled, observational clinical study initiated by investigators to investigate the efficacy and safety of sulfasalazine in the treatment of cirrhosis in patients with cirrhosis. Four cohorts were planned: primary biliary cirrhosis, hepatitis B and C cirrhosis, and alcoholic cirrhosis. The four groups were divided into experimental group and control group, and the experimental group: each group of patients was orally treated sulfasalazine for 12 months, taken three times a day, each time taking 0.5g. The control group did not take sulfasalazine. After 12 months, Observe changes in patients' biochemical and imaging indicators, liver stiffness values, fecal microbiota, and metabolites before and after the use of sulfasalazine.

Prevalence of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients

Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) refers to a spectrum of disease characterized by the presence of more than 5% of steatosis in hepatocytes of individuals who consume little or no alcohol. It ranges from simple steatosis without evidence of inflammation, to the association of steatosis and inflammation with cellular necrosis, the so-called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). NAFLD has become increasingly common in developed countries affecting up to 38% of the population. It is mostly but not exclusively associated with metabolic syndrome including obesity, insulin resistance, and hypertension. There is growing evidence of a close interaction between the gut and the liver "Gut-liver axis", particularly in the pathogenesis of NAFLD. The pathophysiological mechanism behind this association is not well understood but involves small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), intestinal wall inflammation and increased permeability, all leading to systemic translocation of microbial metabolites including endotoxins and pro-inflammatory markers called Pathogen Associated Molecular Pattern (PAMPs). Thus, the gut-liver interaction, mediated by cytokines and inflammatory proteins seem to be the cornerstone of this complex liver disease. Recent studies underlined the increased prevalence of NAFLD in the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) population, accounting for almost 32% of hepatic extra-intestinal manifestations of the disease. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the pathophysiology behind this association, encompassing chronic intestinal wall inflammation, increased intestinal permeability and altered gut microbiota or dysbiosis. To our knowledge, no studies have been conducted so far to investigate the correlation between intestinal disease activity (IBD flare versus remission state) and NAFLD incidence and behavior (progression versus regression of steato-fibrosis). We therefore aim to conduct a prospective paired study, on IBD patients followed at Saint-Pierre University Hospital, aiming to explore this correlation. In this paired study design, patients will be their own controls over the course of their disease: An evaluation of NAFLD will be done for all patients during both phases of their inflammatory bowel disease: In the active phase and in remission phase. Our primary outcome is to assess NAFLD prevalence in the IBD population followed at our institution. Secondary outcomes will be to explore NAFLD prevalence and behavior (progression versus regression of steato-fibrosis) according to IBD activity, IBD type, IBD duration and types of IBD treatments.

Endoscopic Ultrasound Shear Wave for Liver Fibrosis in MASLD Patients: The RUMIPAMBA Trial

Currently, there is no description of the contribution of the endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided shear wave elastography (SWE) when describing liver fibrosis in patients with screening criteria of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), with absent-to-mild liver fibrosis. Similar research has been published but using vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE), recommended mainly due to its lower cost and less invasiveness. However, VCTE is limited to the anatomical proportions of the patient's body, and cannot assess the right hepatic lobe with less reliability, contrary to the EUS-SWE.

Stem Cell Applications in Biliary Atresia Patients

Recently, mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) transplantation has emerged as a promising treatment for liver cirrhosis in adults. Additionally, bone marrow-derived stem cell transplantation has shown success in treating children with biliary atresia (BA). This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of Umbilical Cord-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cell (UC-MSC) therapy in BA through a multicentric randomized controlled trial.

Find HDV and Determine Its Status in Turkey

The aim of these study to determine the prevalence of hepatitis Delta virus (HDV) infections and the prognosis of HDV patients in Turkey's southeast. The investigators intend to arrange training sessions for 250 family physicians in Diyarbakir, Batman, Mardin, and Sanliurfa in order to determine those goals. The investigators will talk about diagnosing hepatitis B virus (HBV), HDV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections during these events. To ensure that patients with simultaneous HDV infection are evaluated for HIV/HCV and to detect liver fibrosis with a non-invasive method.

Global Research Initiative for Patients Screening on MASH

GRIPonMASH will assist (primary) health care providers clinicians to implement the latest patient care pathway, as described by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), to identify patients at risk of severe metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and to raise awareness. The primary objective is to implement a transmural patient care pathway, in order to identify patients with MASLD and its progressive form metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) in primary care centres and clinics in 10 European countries.

Reducing Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if empagliflozin works to treat non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in adults. The objectives are: Primary Objective To evaluate the change in histological grading and staging of NASH in patients with confirmed non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) treated with empagliflozin for a duration of 48 weeks. Secondary Objective To evaluate the change in findings from non-invasive liver elasticity measurements, laboratory tests, and anthropometric assessments after 48 weeks of empagliflozin administration. Participants will: Take empagliflozin every day for 12 months. Visit the clinic according to a protocol at weeks: 1, 2, 4, 12, 24, 36, 48 Visits includes checkups and tests (blood count, basic biochemistry, glycosylated hemoglobin, anthropometry, non-invasive liver stiffness measurement).

HIBOC = Hepatic Imaging Biomarkers in Obese Children

The goal of this prospective, diagnostic observational study is to learn about how imaging based markers for components of liver disease appear in children with obesity. It aims to determine whether the imaging markers (ultrasound and MRI) for liver disease can be tools to improve diagnostics for liver affection in children with obesity and to ascertain how the markers are related to multiple clinical measures, for example BMI and serology measure, and treatment effects over time.

A Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Rencofilstat in Subjects With NASH and Advanced Liver Fibrosis

This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-dosing, multi-center study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Rencofilstat as evidenced by histopathological improvements in fibrosis in adult NASH subjects with F2 or F3 fibrosis (NASH CRN system). Antifibrotic biomarker activity will be evaluated on an exploratory basis.

DIAbetes and NAFLD

Non-alcoholic hepatic steatosis (NAFLD) is characterised by the excessive accumulation of triglycerides in the liver and is often associated, in the absence of significant alcohol consumption, with insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome with which it shares the most frequent clinical manifestations (hypertension, dyslipidaemia, visceral adiposity, glucose intolerance). Due to the pandemic spread of obesity and diabetes and by virtue of better control of viral hepatitis, NAFLD is the most common cause of liver damage in Western countries with a prevalence of around 20-30% of the general population. The clinical impact of NAFLD in diabetes is considerable and represents a real driver of the major clinical outcomes that impact on the health of the individual, consequently creating a real 'burden of disease' especially in those populations considered to be at higher risk of disease severity. Individuals with diabetes are, in fact, those at greatest risk of developing the clinical sequelae of NAFLD and often do not receive adequate hepatological support and a correct hepatic pathology. In fact, it has been documented in the literature that the presence of diabetes increases the severity of liver damage, bringing the risk of NASH up to 80% and increasing the risk of significant fibrosis to 30-40% of subjects with hepatic steatosis as well as representing an independent predictor for significant fibrosis. Lastly, the increased risk of hepatocarcinoma in subjects with diabetes and NAFLD should not be overlooked, as documented by our group and confirmed in a large Italian case series. In subjects with diabetes, moreover, the presence of NAFLD is not only associated with worse glycaemic control, but also with micro- and macro-vascular complications as well as nephrological and neuropathic complications and increased mortality. Therefore, the possibility of applying the non-invasive fibrosis scores currently available for NAFLD on a large scale, in a population at high risk of progressive liver disease, would make it possible to characterise (a) the true epidemiology of significant fibrosis (F3 or higher); (b) allow primary prevention actions to be carried out by optimising the use of resources or by identifying subjects at greater risk of damage progression; (c) understand, in cases with a long history of disease the true prevalence of clinical outcomes; (d) understand the epidemiology of comorbidities and polypharmacy as a function of significant fibrosis.

The Liver Care Trial

The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate the efficacy of screening for liver disease with liver stiffness measurement on abstinence or light consumption after 6 months in individuals who are receiving treatment for alcohol use disorder and without a history of liver disease. The investigators will conduct a randomized controlled trial with concealed allocation comparing A) an invitation to a liver stiffness measurement, blood sampling and leaflet on alcohol-related disease (intervention) with B) an invitation to blood sampling (control). The primary outcome is 'abstinence or light consumption' (≤ 10 units/week) throughout the last months, and assessed 6 months after randomization.

The European NAFLD Registry

The European NAFLD Registry is a prospectively recruited, observational study supporting the study of the clinical phenotype, natural history, disease outcomes and pathophysiology of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis. The ultimate goals are to better understand the drivers of interpatient variation in disease pathophysiology and severity and to utilise this information to develop and validate biomarkers that, singly or in combination, enable detection and monitoring of disease progression and/or from NAFL through NASH to fibrosis and cirrhosis.