Active clinical trials for "Fibrosis"

This phase I trial studies the side effects and best dose of defined green tea catechin extract and to see how well it works in preventing liver cancer in participants with cirrhosis. Higher levels of the molecule gamma-OHPdG may be found in participants with cirrhosis, which may mean a higher risk of the development of liver cancer. Defined green tea catechin extract may work better to lower levels of gamma-OHPdG and prevent the development of liver cancer.

Hypertension and aortic stenosis are the two leading conditions that cause thickening of the heart muscles (left ventricular hypertrophy). Left ventricular hypertrophy is initially adaptive to maintain optimal heart function. Ultimately, heart failure occurs as a result of progressive muscle cell death and scarring (myocardial fibrosis). Dedicated techniques using cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and novel high-sensitivity cardiac troponin blood assays are potential markers to detect myocardial fibrosis. Although hypertension-related heart disease is very common in Singapore, the significance of myocardial fibrosis is not well understood. In this study, the significance of myocardial fibrosis in 2000 patients with hypertension would be investigated. This will be the largest study using state-of-the-art MRI to examine the importance of myocardial fibrosis in hypertensive heart disease. 1000 participants, with at least 1 year follow-up, will be invited for a repeat assessment.

Development, validation and evaluation of a new multimodal questionnaire to assess and quantify the abdominal involvement in patients with the inherited life shortening multi-organ disease Cystic fibrosis. In the stepwhise development of the patient reported outcome measures (PROM) repeadedly, CF-patients, their families as well as professionals working in different fields of CF-care will be included.

In normal ageing, the impact of myocardial fibrosis on myocardial function is unclear as diastolic function is reported to change according to age. The objective is to explore the relationship between myocardial function changes, with local (T1 and diffusion) fibrosis measures with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as well as global measures of fibrosis (skin auto-fluorescence and collagen blood-biomarkers).

The presence of a nonsense mutation leads to the rapid degradation of the carrier mRNA mutation by a mechanism called NMD (nonsense-mediated mRNA decay) [6, 13]. There are currently 3 main strategies at least for correcting nonsense mutations: exon skipping, inhibition of NMD and nonsense mutation readthrough. In the laboratory, we developed a strategy for correcting nonsense mutations combining inhibition of NMD and activation of translecture. For this purpose, we have constructed screening systems to identify NMD-inhibiting and/or readthrough enhancers. The molecules thus identified are then tested on cell lines and in murine models carrying a nonsense mutation. One of our goals is to select a set of molecules that can correct effectively nonsense mutations. For this we have to test these molecules on a great diversity of nonsense mutations. This work will: determine if we can correct all the nonsense mutations tested with at least one of our molecules determine what is common within a group of mutations corrected by a given molecule be able to assign the parameters that make one mutation is corrected by one molecule and not or little by another. This study will therefore improve our theoretical knowledge on the recognition of premature stop codons but also to propose therapeutic approaches for the correction of nonsense mutations of the CFTR gene in cystic fibrosis in a targeted way for a patient.

The introduction of triple combination CFTR modulator therapy for patients with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) with at least one copy of the deltaF508 mutation is expected to provide major health benefits, but will also require novel outcome measures that can detect CF lung disease at an early stage, capture the efficacy of new therapies when disease manifestations are limited, as well as determine whether stopping existing chronic maintenance therapies does not have negative effects. In the past decade, research has focused on the multiple breath washout (MBW) test, as a sensitive outcome measure, especially if highly-effective modulator therapies are initiated in early childhood. Even LCI, however, may not adequately capture early lung function changes, thus warranting investigation of even more sensitive outcome measures. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has the advantage of being a radiation-free modality, making it more suitable for assessing response to therapy in a shorter time frame with repeated imaging. Inhalation of a hyperpolarized gas enables the visualization and quantification of regional ventilation in the lung and can be combined with structural MRI to assess both structure and function in parallel. The main Investigator and others have recently formed an international consortium (the 129Xe MRI Clinical Trial Consortium), comprised of both imaging experts and pulmonary clinicians to standardize imaging procedures, thus facilitating multi-site implementations. Data from this proposed study (HyPOINT; Hyperpolarized Imaging for New Treatments) will inform the future utility of MRI for both longitudinal studies to track disease progression over time as well as for future interventional trials. Further, the current study could inform the design of future trials of interventions of patients for whom currently no effective CFTR modulator therapy is available and for patients with rare genotypes thus laying the groundwork for a more personalized medicine approach in the near-term future.

There are currently no good ways of measuring levels of scarring in the hearts of patients with advanced kidney disease and patients on dialysis, although recent research has shown a new cardiac MRI technique, called native T1 mapping, may provide a solution to this. To assess the accuracy of this novel technique in dialysis patients, it is essential to undertake a study which compares native T1 mapping to actual levels of scarring in the hearts of patients on dialysis.

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a disease that affects salt and water transport in multiple organs. Many CF patients suffer from abdominal pain and this could be due to intestinal inflammation. However, so far we do not know how many of the CF patients actually do have intestinal inflammation when looking at intestinal specimens. There is a proven connection between chronic inflammation and developing colorectal cancer and over the years more CF patients are developing colorectal cancer. Thus, it becomes increasingly important to look for the presence of intestinal inflammation in CF patients since early treatment may improve their symptoms and reduce the risk for colorectal cancer.

This a prospective, longitudinal study of first-degree family members of patients diagnosed with familial interstitial pneumonia (FIP). FIP is the familial form of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), which is defined as 2 or more bloodline relatives which have a diagnosis of idiopathic interstitial pneumonia (IIP). The most common form of idiopathic interstitial pneumonia in FIP families is IPF (approximately 70%). The inheritance pattern in FIP is consistent with autosomal dominant inheritance with incomplete penetrance. Therefore, individuals in this study have approximately 50% risk of carrying a disease-associated allele. The causative gene is currently only known approximately 20% of families. The main goal of this longitudinal study is to better establish the natural history of FIP and to identify risk factors for later development of symptomatic disease. The investigators' plan is to follow these at-risk individuals with yearly questionnaires and planned in person 2 year follow-ups through age 75 or until they develop symptomatic FIP.

The purpose of the study is to determine if miR200 family may serve as a biomarker of IPF.