Page 66 - MemoriaCIBER2019-ENG

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CIBER Annual report 2019
Programmes
PROGRAMME 1. Liver injury mechanisms / evolution into advanced cirrhosis and transplantation
Coordinator: Rafael Bañarés Cañizares
The activity of Programme 1 during 2019 has maintained its development within the strategic orientation of the CI- BEREHD. Worth noting is the breadth of its research activity which covers practically all liver diseases (viral hepatitis, metabolic diseases, liver damage due to alcohol, complications of cirrhosis), excluding liver cancer.
Among the priority strategic lines, the promotion of international relations stands out; as in previous years, collabo- rations with groups from other countries have been strengthened in the setting of different European consortia and projects, evidencing the programme’s internationalisation capacity. The groups of the programme have been able to maintain their own lines of project financing and recruitment of human resources in competitive calls, allowing the critical mass of the programme to be maintained.
From the standpoint of collaboration between groups in the programme, the development of cooperative studies in the clinical field has been ongoing. Nevertheless, the generation of a network of basic researchers, through specific strategic actions by the CIBEREHD, has been striking. Specifically, the development of a mouse model with human- ized liver is enabling different experimental approaches based on that model; also, the network established for re- search into the role of extracellular vesicles has furthermore obtained some relevant scientific results of forthcoming publication. Similarly, the frequent presence of collaborative studies between basic and clinical scientists has been maintained and, as in previous years, some of the publications with greatest impact are precisely a result of these interactions.
As regards scientific results, production has continued to maintain a large proportion of publications in the first de- cile in this specialty, as well as the generation of clinical practice guidelines, as a final expression of the capacity for translation of research work to the patient. Without undermining the importance of all the scientific results of the programme, the large cooperative clinical studies in patients with complications of cirrhosis in the form of variceal bleeding or ascites decompensation should be highlighted. The National Hepatitis Plan has already ended, but the activity carried out continues to lead to generate publications describing how to refine the follow-up of patients with resolved infection. Interestingly, in patients with cirrhosis, it has been found that the risk of cancer does not disappear, making it necessary to maintain a structured follow-up. The presence of certain mutations in non-coding regions of the genome has been reported to be significantly more frequent in patients with severe forms of infection, such as fibrosing cholestatic hepatitis. Finally, we highlight the analysis of the mechanism that delta virus uses to escape the host’s immune response.