Newcastle University

Project:

Fatty Liver: Inhibition of Progression (FLIP)

From January 2010
Project Leader(s): Prof Christopher P. Day, Prof Ann K. Daly, Prof Mike Trenell, Dr Quentin M. Anstee.
Contact: Dr Quentin M. Anstee
Sponsors: European Commission Framework 7 Programme.

Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is strongly associated with diabetes and other features of the metabolic syndrome. It is rapidly becoming the leading cause of liver disease in the UK and worldwide. The aim of the EH FP7 funded FLIP consortium (Fatty Liver: Inhibition of Progression) is to understand this condition and to develop therapies that prevent disease progression to cirrhosis.  

Its main outcomes will be:
• New insights into its progression, particularly in terms of identifying the initiating mechanisms and patients at risk.
• Developing innovative diagnostic methods adapted for large-scale screening and prognostic evaluation.
• Characterising the key pathways and molecular targets amenable to pharmacological therapy.
• We are defining the clinical benefits of lifestyle change and structured physical activity on NAFLD.  Our studies have reported, for the first time, the effects of structured exercise on liver fat and cardiac function in people with NAFLD.  These studies, and other studies supported by the NIHR which will define the individual and combined effects of structured physical activity and weight management on liver disease.

Within this project, the Newcastle liver group has recently completed the largest histologically based Genome Wide Association Study in NAFLD to date, providing new insights into genetic disease modifiers that affect not only liver fat accumulation but also the development of progressive disease characterised by inflammation and fibrosis within the liver.