CARBALIVE

Chronic liver disease affects about 29 million Europeans accounting for about 170,000 deaths at a cost of around €15.8bn. This chronic non-communicable disease is increasing at an alarming rate due to increasing European obesity, alcohol use and ageing. The three main causes of the disease; alcohol, fatty liver and viral hepatitis are amenable to prevention and treatment. Gut-derived endotoxins and bacterial translocation are central factors implicated in the pathogenesis of fatty liver disease and, the development and progression of cirrhosis.

In cirrhosis, current state-of-the-art therapy to prevent recurrent complications of advanced cirrhosis is to use poorly absorbed antibiotics but long term antibiotic therapy has problems associated with bacterial resistance, infection with resistant organisms and the cost. Treatment of fatty liver and modulation of bacterial translocation in early cirrhosis to prevent complications is an unmet need.

The University of Brighton researchers are part of an academic-industrial consortium that has developed a novel, patented, safe and cheap nanoporous carbon that modulates the effects of bacterial translocation in animal models of liver disease. Our feasibility studies demonstrate that this product is now ready for validation through clinical trials.

The CARBALIVE project - Clinical evaluation of carbons of controlled porosity as a new therapeutic for the treatment of liver cirrhosis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease - will build on the results of our preclinical feasibility studies through international collaboration to establish the safety and efficacy of the novel oral carbon adsorbent therapy, Yaq-001 for the treatment of liver disease, now marketed as Carbalive^TM.