Emerging therapeutic biomarkers of autoimmune hepatitis and their impact on current and future management.

Emerging therapeutic biomarkers of autoimmune hepatitis and their impact on current and future management. Expert Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2018 Mar 14;: Authors: Czaja AJ Abstract INTRODUCTION: Autoimmune hepatitis lacks a quantifiable biomarker that is close to its pathogenic mechanisms and that accurately reflects inflammatory activity, correlates with treatment response, and ensures inactive disease before treatment withdrawal. Areas covered: Micro-ribonucleic acids, programmed death-1 protein and its ligands, macrophage migration inhibitory factor, soluble CD163, B cell activating factor, and metabolite patterns in blood were considered the leading candidates as therapeutic biomarkers after search of PubMed from August 1981 to August 2017 using the search words "biomarkers of autoimmune hepatitis". Expert commentary: Each of the candidate biomarkers is close to the putative pathogenic mechanisms of autoimmune hepatitis, and each has attributes that support its potential role as a surrogate marker of inflammatory activity that can be monitored during treatment. Future studies must demonstrate the superiority of each biomarker to conventional indices of inflammatory activity and validate their correlation with treatment response and outcome. A reliable therapeutic biomarker would facilitate the individualization of current management algorithms, ensure that pathogenic mechanisms were disrupted or eliminated prior to treatment wit...
Source: Expert Review of Gastroenterology and Hepatology - Category: Gastroenterology Tags: Expert Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol Source Type: research