{"title":"Incorporating genetic variations in alcohol-associated liver disease trials for East Asian populations","authors":"Bossng Kang","doi":"10.1038/s41575-025-01060-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-025-01060-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p>I read with great interest the article by Lee et al. (Lee, B. P. et al. Designing clinical trials to address alcohol use and alcohol-associated liver disease: an expert panel Consensus Statement. <i>Nat. Rev. Gastroenterol. Hepatol</i>. <b>21</b>, 626–645 (2024))<sup>1</sup>. In their Consensus Statement<sup>1</sup>, the authors are to be commended for their comprehensive framework, which integrates methodologies from alcohol use disorder and alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) research to enhance the quality and efficacy of clinical trials. This effort represents a major step towards addressing the dual challenges of alcohol use and liver disease. However, further refinement is warranted regarding the application of heavy drinking thresholds, particularly in populations with unique genetic predispositions such as East Asian individuals, a population in which aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (<i>ALDH2</i>) polymorphisms are highly prevalent<sup>2,3</sup>.</p>","PeriodicalId":18793,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Gastroenterology &Hepatology","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":65.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143695501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mack C. Mitchell, Brian P. Lee, Jessica Mellinger, Laura E. Nagy
{"title":"Reply to ‘Incorporating genetic variations in alcohol-associated liver disease trials for East Asian populations’","authors":"Mack C. Mitchell, Brian P. Lee, Jessica Mellinger, Laura E. Nagy","doi":"10.1038/s41575-025-01059-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-025-01059-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We thank Kang for their comments on our recent Consensus Statement (Lee, B. P. et al. Designing clinical trials to address alcohol use and alcohol-associated liver disease: an expert panel Consensus Statement. <i>Nat. Rev. Gastroenterol. Hepatol</i>. <b>21</b>, 626–645 (2024))<sup>1</sup> to incorporate genetic variations into consideration (Kang, B. Incorporating genetic variations in alcohol-associated liver disease trials for East Asian populations. <i>Nat. Rev. Gastroenterol. Hepatol</i>. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-025-01060-0 (2025))<sup>2</sup>. We agree that people who are deficient in ALDH2 and drink alcohol might be at increased risk of cancer of the upper digestive tract, oesophagus and liver. The increased risk of cancer in those who are ALDH2-deficient noted by Kang was not the focus of our initiative, but we appreciate the acknowledgement of the increased risk for this population.</p>","PeriodicalId":18793,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Gastroenterology &Hepatology","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":65.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143695504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Carmen Ortuño-Costela, Massimo Pinzani, Ludovic Vallier
{"title":"Cell therapy for liver disorders: past, present and future","authors":"M. Carmen Ortuño-Costela, Massimo Pinzani, Ludovic Vallier","doi":"10.1038/s41575-025-01050-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-025-01050-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The liver fulfils a plethora of vital functions and, due to their importance, liver dysfunction has life-threatening consequences. Liver disorders currently account for more than two million deaths annually worldwide and can be classified broadly into three groups, considering their onset and aetiology, as acute liver diseases, inherited metabolic disorders and chronic liver diseases. In the most advanced and severe forms leading to liver failure, liver transplantation is the only treatment available, which has many associated drawbacks, including a shortage of organ donors. Cell therapy via fully mature cell transplantation is an advantageous alternative that may be able to restore a damaged organ’s functionality or serve as a bridge until regeneration can occur. Pioneering work has shown that transplanting adult hepatocytes can support liver recovery. However, primary hepatocytes cannot be grown extensively in vitro as they rapidly lose their metabolic activity. Therefore, different cell sources are currently being tested as alternatives to primary cells. Human pluripotent stem cell-derived cells, chemically induced liver progenitors, or ‘liver’ organoids, hold great promise for developing new cell therapies for acute and chronic liver diseases. This Review focuses on the advantages and drawbacks of distinct cell sources and the relative strategies to address different therapeutic needs in distinct liver diseases.</p>","PeriodicalId":18793,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Gastroenterology &Hepatology","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":65.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143639970","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"EASL Liver Cancer Summit 2025","authors":"Jordan Hindson","doi":"10.1038/s41575-025-01057-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-025-01057-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p>From 20–22 February 2025, <i>Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology</i> attended in person the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) Liver Cancer Summit 2025 in Paris, France.</p><p>The meeting was attended by 720 delegates from 51 countries and there were 238 abstracts submitted, according to the organizers.</p>","PeriodicalId":18793,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Gastroenterology &Hepatology","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":65.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143598777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Estimating dietary intake from human stool DNA","authors":"Katrina Ray","doi":"10.1038/s41575-025-01054-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-025-01054-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Accurately determining dietary and nutrient intake in nutrition research is challenging, and usually reliant on self-reported methods such as dietary questionnaires that can introduce bias. A new study published in <i>Nature Metabolism</i> reports a method for quantifying food-derived DNA in human stool — Metagenomic Estimation of Dietary Intake (MEDI) — by examining faecal metagenomes. This new, semi-quantitative method could be an alternative approach for approximating dietary intake.</p><p>Diener et al. constructed a comprehensive metagenomic food database (>450 foods mapped) and showed that DNA-containing food components can be detected in stool-derived metagenomic data, even at low abundance. Moreover, MEDI dietary intake profiles could be converted into detailed metabolic representations of nutrient intake. In validation experiments, MEDI estimates showed agreement with food and nutrient intake from two controlled-feeding studies and food frequency questionnaire data in infant and adult populations. Furthermore, as a proof-of-concept, the researchers demonstrated that specific dietary features associated with metabolic syndrome could be determined in a large clinical cohort (<i>n</i> = 533, 274 healthy individuals and 259 individuals with metabolic syndrome in the METACARDIS study) without dietary records.</p>","PeriodicalId":18793,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Gastroenterology &Hepatology","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":65.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143569531","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"RNA vaccine induces long-lived anti-tumour T cells in pancreatic cancer","authors":"Katrina Ray","doi":"10.1038/s41575-025-01055-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-025-01055-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Vaccines to treat cancer are currently in development, with the potential for personalized treatments targeting specific mutations in various cancer types. A previous phase I trial reported that a personalized RNA neoantigen vaccine was safe and stimulated anti-tumour CD8<sup>+</sup> T cells in patients with pancreatic cancer that correlated with delayed recurrence of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (8 of 16, at 1.5-year follow-up). Patients underwent surgery and then treatment with atezolizumab (a PD-L1 inhibitory antibody), autogene cevumeran (a personalized neoantigen RNA vaccine) and modified FOLFIRINOX (chemotherapy). In this new study, published in <i>Nature</i>, the researchers analysed samples before and after treatment in an extended follow-up to further investigate the features of these vaccine-induced T cells.</p><p>Treatment responders with vaccine-induced T cells (<i>n</i> = 8) had prolonged recurrence-free survival compared with non-responders without such T cells (median 13.4 months, <i>P</i> = 0.007), with 6 of the responders cancer-free at a median follow-up of 3.2 years. Autogene cevumeran induced long-lived and robust CD8<sup>+</sup> T cell responses that correlated with delayed pancreatic adenocarcinoma recurrence at 3.2 years. Crucially, the vaccine induced long-lived T cell clones (with multi-year lifespans, median of 7.7 years) that persist as putative memory T cells and retained these effector functions long term. A global randomized phase II trial is now ongoing.</p>","PeriodicalId":18793,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Gastroenterology &Hepatology","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":65.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143569523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"ECCO’25","authors":"Eleni Kotsiliti","doi":"10.1038/s41575-025-01053-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-025-01053-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In February 2025, <i>Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology</i> attended the 20th Congress of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO’25) in Berlin, Germany. According to the organizers, 1,776 abstracts were submitted, of which 1,358 were posters and 176 were oral presentations. Compared with previous years, ECCO’25 had the highest attendance, with 8,156 delegates. This year, ECCO focused on the REACH goal for sustainability in the prevention and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).</p><p>Sections were dedicated to all things IBD, including nutrition, treatment strategies, surgery and endoscopy, and artificial intelligence tools. Single-cell RNA sequencing, multi-omics biomarkers and antibodies were among the research topics discussed, as well as combination therapy, personalized treatment and psychosocial factors associated with IBD. Richard Hansen and Vaios Svolos presented a summary of the upcoming ECCO consensus on diet and nutrition in IBD that involves, among others, diet recommendations for induction and maintenance. Roger Feakins, Torsten Kucharzik and Stuart Taylor presented a summary of the updated multi-society consensus on IBD diagnostic guidelines. In addition, notable trial results were presented, such as RELIEVE UCCD, GRAVITI and EFFICACI.</p>","PeriodicalId":18793,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Gastroenterology &Hepatology","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":65.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143560708","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nurulamin M. Noor, Shellie J. Radford, Babak Choodari-Oskooei, Morris Gordon, Ailsa L. Hart, Trish Hepburn, Ed Juszczak, James O. Lindsay, Nicholas A. Kennedy, Mahesh K. B. Parmar, Vipul Jairath, Gordon W. Moran
{"title":"Developing an adaptive platform trial for evaluation of medical treatments for Crohn’s disease","authors":"Nurulamin M. Noor, Shellie J. Radford, Babak Choodari-Oskooei, Morris Gordon, Ailsa L. Hart, Trish Hepburn, Ed Juszczak, James O. Lindsay, Nicholas A. Kennedy, Mahesh K. B. Parmar, Vipul Jairath, Gordon W. Moran","doi":"10.1038/s41575-025-01052-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-025-01052-0","url":null,"abstract":"There is emerging interest in adaptive platform trials for inflammatory bowel disease. In this Comment, we present the results of a workshop that was convened to consider the opportunities and challenges of developing a platform trial in Crohn’s disease.","PeriodicalId":18793,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Gastroenterology &Hepatology","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":65.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143545942","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Amira Metwaly, Aicha Kriaa, Zahra Hassani, Federica Carraturo, Celine Druart, Kaline Arnauts, Paul Wilmes, Jens Walter, Stephan Rosshart, Mahesh S. Desai, Joel Dore, Hervé M. Blottiere, Emmanuelle Maguin, Dirk Haller
{"title":"A Consensus Statement on establishing causality, therapeutic applications and the use of preclinical models in microbiome research","authors":"Amira Metwaly, Aicha Kriaa, Zahra Hassani, Federica Carraturo, Celine Druart, Kaline Arnauts, Paul Wilmes, Jens Walter, Stephan Rosshart, Mahesh S. Desai, Joel Dore, Hervé M. Blottiere, Emmanuelle Maguin, Dirk Haller","doi":"10.1038/s41575-025-01041-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-025-01041-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The gut microbiome comprises trillions of microorganisms and profoundly influences human health by modulating metabolism, immune responses and neuronal functions. Disruption in gut microbiome composition is implicated in various inflammatory conditions, metabolic disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. However, determining the underlying mechanisms and establishing cause and effect is extremely difficult. Preclinical models offer crucial insights into the role of the gut microbiome in diseases and help identify potential therapeutic interventions. The Human Microbiome Action Consortium initiated a Delphi survey to assess the utility of preclinical models, including animal and cell-based models, in elucidating the causal role of the gut microbiome in these diseases. The Delphi survey aimed to address the complexity of selecting appropriate preclinical models to investigate disease causality and to study host–microbiome interactions effectively. We adopted a structured approach encompassing a literature review, expert workshops and the Delphi questionnaire to gather insights from a diverse range of stakeholders. Experts were requested to evaluate the strengths, limitations, and suitability of these models in addressing the causal relationship between the gut microbiome and disease pathogenesis. The resulting consensus statements and recommendations provide valuable insights for selecting preclinical models in future studies of gut microbiome-related diseases.</p>","PeriodicalId":18793,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Gastroenterology &Hepatology","volume":"130 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":65.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143532353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}