Researchers find a protein that protects from non-alcoholic fatty liver
The protein Mitofusin 2 can act as a protector regarding non-alcoholic fatty liver disease -a pathology affecting about 25 % of the world population-, according to a new study published in Cell and led by the researcher Antonio Zorzano, professor from the Faculty of Biology of the UB and head of the Complex Metabolic Diseases and Mitochondria laboratory at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona).
The protein Mitofusin 2 can act as a protector regarding non-alcoholic fatty liver disease -a pathology affecting about 25 % of the world population-, according to a new study published in Cell and led by the researcher Antonio Zorzano, professor from the Faculty of Biology of the UB and head of the Complex Metabolic Diseases and Mitochondria laboratory at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona).
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a series of hepatic affections with different degrees of severity which are characterized by the accumulation of fat in liver cells and are not caused by high alcohol consumption. One of the most serious clinical pictures in fatty liver is non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NADH), a pathology that occurs due an accumulation of fat and inflammation.
In the study, the scientific team confirmed there is a significant reduction of Mitufusin 2 levels in patients and mice affected by NADH. The restoration of Mitofusin 2 levels in mice with NADH revealed an important improvement in the disease accordingh to an adenovirus-based (modified viruses to express certain proteins) experimental protocol.
“Mitofusin 2 represents a potential therapeutic target to fight fatty liver, a pathology for which no treatments are available. Nowadays it is hard to make an early diagnostic and doctors suggest patients to lose weight in order to alleviate it”, notes Antonio Zorzano, professor from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine of the UB and member of the Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Diseases Networking Biomedical Centre (CIBERDEM).
According to IRB researcher María Isabel Hernández-Álvarez, first author of the study, “we are now studying different approaches to enhance Mitofusin 2 levels without generating adverse effects, and which could be relevant in the treatment of the non-alcoholic fatty liver”.