A study has found that oral chronic hepatitis B treatment is effective in improving non-alcoholic fatty liver. Patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, in which fat accumulates in the liver even without drinking alcohol, is increasing due to a westernized diet and lack of exercise, but there is no approved treatment yet.
The Catholic University of Korea’s Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital Gastroenterology Professor Seong Pil-soo and Biomedical Health Sciences researcher Purun Noh research team announced that they had confirmed that tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) is effective in improving non-alcoholic fatty liver through rat experiments.
Tenofovir alafenamide is a novel targeted prodrug of tenofovir, first approved in the United States in 2016 as an oral treatment for adults with chronic hepatitis B. A prodrug is a drug that exhibits medicinal effects when it is metabolized by metabolic enzymes when it enters the body. This drug delivers active ingredients to liver cells more efficiently than existing chronic hepatitis B drugs.
As a result of the study, systemic drug exposure in plasma was reduced by about 89% and kidney and bone safety were improved. Professor Sung’s team confirmed that blood ALT (alanine aminotransferase) and AST (aspartate aminotransferase) levels improved and liver cell damage decreased when tenofovir alafenamide was administered. In addition, for the first time, it was identified that tenofovir alafenamide inhibits the activation of AKT protein in hepatocytes (mononuclear phagocytes in the liver) to obtain an anti-inflammatory effect and improve non-alcoholic fatty liver.
Professor Seong said, “This study provides a theoretical basis to explain that tenofovir alafenamide has a significantly higher liver function normalization rate than other antiviral drugs.” Since there is no drug, patients are advised to lose weight actively, eat appropriately, and do aerobic exercise. If a standard treatment is established through this study, it will be possible to prevent non-alcoholic fatty liver from progressing to severe liver disease.” The results of this study were published in the international journal ‘Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy’.
Reporter Jeong Jin-soo
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