A study from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has shed light on how long-term alcohol consumption can severely harm people’s health.
The researchers focused on alcohol-associated hepatitis, a serious liver disease caused by years of heavy drinking.
Alcohol-associated hepatitis is more severe than other alcohol-related liver conditions like cirrhosis and fatty liver.
Patients with this disease have often consumed large amounts of alcohol for over a decade, such as more than a six-pack of beer, a bottle of wine, or four shots of liquor per day.
Tragically, about 10% of these patients die within a month of diagnosis, and around 25% die within six months, showing just how deadly the disease can be.
In this study, scientists analyzed blood and tissue samples from 106 people. This group included 57 patients with alcohol-associated hepatitis and 49 others who had nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, other alcohol-related liver diseases like cirrhosis, or were healthy.
The team used advanced mass spectrometry to measure over 1,500 proteins in the blood of the participants.
The results were striking. While alcohol-associated hepatitis significantly impacts many proteins in the blood, the researchers identified 100 specific proteins that are altered in patients with this disease.
These proteins are involved in various bodily functions, including inflammation, immunity, clotting, and essential liver functions. The findings matched well with previous studies that looked at liver tissues from patients with alcohol-associated hepatitis.
A key discovery was the role of a molecule called HNF4A, which is crucial for liver gene activity. HNF4A is also involved in other diseases like pancreatic cancer and diabetes.
The altered proteins in the blood directly correlated with the widespread disruption of genes and proteins in the liver, linking these changes to liver function.
This study is a significant step toward developing a blood test that could diagnose alcohol-associated hepatitis. Such a test would be a valuable tool for detecting the disease early. The researchers are also conducting further studies to see if these protein changes could help monitor how patients respond to treatment.
Currently, doctors often use steroids to reduce inflammation in these patients, but this treatment can make patients more susceptible to infections. Finding better ways to monitor and treat alcohol-associated hepatitis could improve outcomes for these patients.
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This study, led by Biochemist Jon Jacobs, was published in the American Journal of Pathology.
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