New drug treatment could cut liver transplants

Scientists have argued that a new treatment for sudden liver failure could prvent the need for liver transplants.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh say that a cancer drug used in therapy has the potential to cut the need for transplants, which could positively impact patient care, because it maintains the regenerative potential of the liver, an ability usually lost in a number of injuries and ilnesses.

The study has examined why people's livers to understand why they lose their ability to regenerate, discovering that senescence, the name for when the body'scells become old and stop working properly, is quickly triggered during severe injuries.

Published in Science Translational Medicine, the study has only been tested on mice so far, but scientists are keen to trial the drug on patients in the hope it could cut transplants.

Dr Thomas Bird, one of the researchers at the University of Edinburgh, said: "The beauty of this clinically is even if you have massive injury, if the liver is regrown then you have a normal life after that. The most obvious thing to is to do now is clinical trials in patients with acute liver failure and see if we can prevent the need for transplant."