Stable Liver Function during Long-Term Administration of Eltrombopag, a Thrombopoietin Receptor Agonist, in Patients with Chronic Liver Disease.

Stable Liver Function during Long-Term Administration of Eltrombopag, a Thrombopoietin Receptor Agonist, in Patients with Chronic Liver Disease. Tohoku J Exp Med. 2016;240(4):277-279 Authors: Kurokawa T, Murata S, Ohkohchi N Abstract Liver cirrhosis is the end stage of chronic liver disease, but no definitive pharmacological treatment is currently available. It has been reported that thrombopoietin (TPO) promotes liver regeneration and improves liver cirrhosis by increasing platelet count. We have shown the direct effect of platelet transfusion on the improvement of liver function in patients with chronic liver disease. However, platelet transfusion often causes adverse events, such as platelet transfusion refractoriness and pruritus. Therefore, we conducted an exploratory clinical trial and administered eltrombopag, an orally bioavailable, small-molecule, non-peptide TPO receptor agonist that has been approved for the treatment of chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. The study included five male patients, aged from 49 to 75 years (57.6 ± 10.4 years), with both chronic liver disease and hepatitis C virus infection, who presented with thrombocytopenia but without cancer. Eltrombopag, ranged from 6.25 to 50 mg/day (18.75 ± 18.22 mg/day), was administrated to the five patients during six months. All of the patients maintained platelet counts between 10 and 15 × 10(10)/L during the study. The indicators of liver function in pa...
Source: The Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Tohoku J Exp Med Source Type: research