RENAISSANCE · Advanced biomarker discovery for earlier diagnosis and improved prognosis of NAFLD stages via high resolution mass spectrometry.
Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2023-08-01 → 2025-07-31
- EU contribution
- €150,439
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Advanced biomarker discovery for earlier diagnosis and improved prognosis of NAFLD stages via high resolution mass spectrometry.
The RENAISSANCE project addressed a prevalent global health issue: non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), presently being termed as “metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD)”. MASLD affects approximately 25% of the adult and elderly population worldwide. Early detection is vital for effective intervention before progression to more chronic severe conditions such as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), cirrhosis, or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The current clinical diagnosis is based on imaging techniques such as ultrasonography and elastography which, however, are not available to all in need, while robust and valid laboratory markers of MASLD are lacking for more characteristic diagnosis. Therefore, RENAISSANCE aimed to evaluate small-molecule metabolites and proteins as the potential markers for prognosis of MASLD stages. The project applied state-of-the-art mass spectrometry instrumentation for comprehensive profiling of small molecule metabolites and proteins related to nutrition and inflammation, which play critical role in the pathogenesis and severity of MASLD. The project has made significant progress towards its scientific impact, and generated results culminating from omics studies will contribute to understanding the underlying pathological molecular processes and metabolism in MASLD progression.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has a global prevalence of nearly 25% i.e., affects one quarter of the adult population. Early phase NAFLD is reversible and can be treated, but it may progress towards life-threatening stages such as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The conventional diagnosis of NAFLD stages requires liver biopsy and is time-consuming and costly and there is an urgent need to identify biomarkers that can be applied in routine clinical settings, such as through blood-based testing. The identification of blood biomarkers would support earlier diagnosis and improved assessment of prognosis, ultimately supporting preventive/intervention measures to avoid progression to late stage liver disease and thus saving lives. In RENAISSANCE, a state-of-the-art liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) metabolomics screening will be conducted upon the blood and blood-derived exosomes of a unique deeply phenotyped cohort of NAFLD patients for molecular biomarker discovery. Notably, exosome analysis shows promise for the identification of novel disease signatures but has yet to be applied to characterize NAFLD, providing high potential for the identification of new diagnostic/prognostic biomarkers for NAFLD. Furthermore, the LC-HRMS screen will be supported via targeted assays of redox metabolites and protein markers of acute inflammation. The integration of non-target and target data will provide insight into the underlying mechanisms of disease progression and further knowledge about potential causative factors of NAFLD.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- Masarykova univerzita · BrnoCoordinatorCzechia
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/101107954
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e507d886f3&appId=PPGMS
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e51eb3a57f&appId=PPGMS
Data: CORDIS, © European Union