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SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMS

which may favorably affect patients subjected to liver resections or liver transplant,

and on reducing liver transplant wait lists. The results obtained by the research group
have further enabled participating in competitive programs intended for translating

experimental results to clinical practice, which will result in patent applications and
in creating a spin-off. As regards post-transplant recurrence of hepatitis C, antiviral

treatment regimens have been established in liver transplant candidates and in liver

transplant patients with serious recurrence of the disease. Patients with serious post-
transplant recurrence of hepatitis C have also been characterized by invasive and

non-invasive means. Finally, those patients with a profile indicating operational graft

tolerance, which allows withdrawing immunosuppression, have been more precisely
characterized.

In addition, it is very important to point out the important collaboration established

with important groups dedicated to studying liver diseases, particularly with the Viral
Hepatitis Group (Dr. X. Forns) and the Portal Hypertension Group (Dr. J. Bosch).

The objectives of the Program’s four projects are explained below.
Objectives

PROJECT 1

Project title:

Operational tolerance and withdrawal of immunosuppressant in patients with
liver transplant.

Lead Group: Navasa
á
Principal Investigator: A. Snchez-Fueyo.

Collaborating Groups:

CIBEREHD Groups: Berenguer, De la Mata, Forns, Prieto, Parrilla, Bosch

International groups: Giuseppe Tisone (Roma), Jacques Pirenne (Leuven), Gavin

Whitehouse (London), Frans Claas (Leiden).

Objectives:

• To determine the predictive capacity of a transcriptional tolerance test based on

peripheral mononuclear blood cells to identify patients who can stop using immu-
nosuppressant.

•
To establish the clinical benefits of the withdrawal of the immunosuppressant in
patients identified as tolerant based on the aforementioned transcriptional test,

particularly in terms of improving renal function and various cardiovascular risk
factors.

• 13
To investigate the impact that chronic HCV infection in transplant patients with 20
hepatitis C recurrence may have on withdrawal of the immunosuppressant.
T
R
• To analyze the gene expression profile in liver tissue to even more precisely iden- PO
E
tify patients that are tolerant to the graft.
L R
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NU
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