B vitamins – an inexpensive treatment for advanced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, which involves the accumulation of fat in the liver, is the leading cause of liver transplants around the world

• They also found that vitamin B12 and folic acid (vitamin B9) could be used to prevent and/or delay disease progression

  
  

Scientists at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore have discovered a mechanism that causes an advanced form of fatty liver disease

The findings could help people with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, an umbrella term for a range of liver diseases that affect people who drink little or no alcohol

"Our findings are both exciting and important because they suggest that a relatively inexpensive treatment, vitamin B12 and folic acid, could be used to prevent and/or delay the progression of NASH.

Madhulika Tripathi, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, Hormone Regulation Laboratory, Cardiovascular and Metabolism Program, Duke-NUS, and first author of the study, said: "Although hepatic fat deposition is reversible in its early stages, its progression to NASH can lead to hepatic Dysfunction, cirrhosis and increased risk of liver cancer

Because scientists don't understand the mechanisms of NASH, there are currently no drug treatments for the disease

A Western-style diet, typically high in fructose intake, can lead to elevated serum and hepatic homocysteine ​​levels in the blood (medically known as hyperhomocysteinemia), which the team found is associated with nonalcoholic fats Proportional to the severity of NASH, patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) have developed NASH

Dr.

Importantly, the scientists found that supplementation with vitamin B12 and folic acid in preclinical models increased levels of synthetic protein 17 in the liver and restored its role in autophagy

demonstrated that a relatively inexpensive treatment, vitamin B12 and folic acid, could be used to prevent and/or delay the progression of NASH

Homocysteine ​​may also affect other liver proteins, and finding out what they are is a future direction for the team

Vitamin B12 and folic acid have a high safety profile and are designated as dietary supplements by the U.

The study was published in the Journal of Liver Diseases

Vitamin B ₁₂ and folate decrease inflammation and fibrosis in NASH by preventing Syntaxin 17 homocysteinylation” by Madhulika Tripathi, Brijesh Kumar Singh, Jin Zhou, Keziah Tikno, Anissa Widjaja, Reddemma Sandireddy, Kabilesh Arul, Siti Aishah Binte Abdul Ghani, George Goh Boon Bee , Kiraely Adam Wong, Ho Jia Pei, Shamini Guna Shekeran, Rohit Anthony Sinha, Manvendra K.