New drug may heal liver

[Guest guest]

New drug may heal liver

Australian News

Clara Pirani, Medical reporter

September 25, 2006

SCIENTISTS have discovered a drug that they predict could prevent

liver disease, even in alcoholics.

Tests on the drug, which is already used to treat inflammatory bowel

disease, found that it prevented scarring of the liver and even

reversed liver damage.

Day, a liver specialist from Newcastle University in

Britain who led the research, said sulphasalazine could provide an

alternative to liver transplants.

" This drug is not a finite resource. You are not stealing it from

someone else, which is always a worry in public opinion, " Professor

Day said.

" People are dying on the transplant list. "

Until now, cirrhosis of the liver, caused by alcohol, obesity or the

hepatitis C virus, was considered incurable in all but the rarest of

cases.

The only option for patients in the final stages of liver disease was

to wait for a liver transplant.

, director of the Austin Hospital's liver transplant unit

in Melbourne, said that more than 10 per cent of patients died while

on the waiting list.

" At any one time there's usually about 100 to 130 people on the

waiting list in Australia and up to 15 to 20 per cent will die, "

Professor said.

" The death rate is increasing because of the increasing demand for

transplants and the very fixed donor supply. So there is a lot of

work going on trying to find drugs that would reverse fibrosis in the

liver. "

The researchers have tested the drug on animals and human trials are

expected to begin in Britain next year.

The drug will initially be given to heavy drinkers who have given up

alcohol too late for their liver to recover naturally.

If this proves successful, the medicine will also be prescribed to

alcoholics who continue to drink but show a determination to fight

their addiction by reducing intake.

" The prospect is that you may be able to continue drinking, "

Professor Day said.

" If the drug is not too expensive, I may say, of course we have to

give these patients advice about drinking, but who are we to

say, 'Just because you are still drinking, we are not going to give

you this drug'?

" I would be of the view that it should be tried in patients who are

making an effort. "

Sulphasalazine may also relieve the ethical dilemma of giving donated

livers to people whose illness was self-inflicted through excessive

consumption of alcohol or poor diet and obesity.

Professor said 10 to 15 per cent of people on the waiting list

for a liver transplant were heavy drinkers.

" It's a very tough decision for the doctors, if, for example they are

faced with a 45-year-old man with a young family who's a heavy

drinker. (If) you say no to the transplant, they will die.

" It would be revolutionary if this drug could reverse the liver

damage so you wouldn't need to do a transplant or, better yet,

prevent the damage in the first place. "