Today we celebrate the international NASH day in order to together raise awareness in the fight against the NASH epidemic!

Read the blog post on how we should shed light on the disease and raise global awareness.

Today is International NASH Day! VLVbio is proud to join the Global Liver Institute (GLI) in raising awareness of this important health issue.

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH, has been called an epidemic, a ticking time bomb, and a silent tsunami. It is the progressive form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and affects more than 115 million people worldwide. An estimated 357 million people will be affected by 2030.

Because NASH symptoms are not overt, NASH is often underdiagnosed and underreported. NAFLD and NASH are major risk factors for other health conditions: more than 70% of patients are obese, up to 75% have type 2 diabetes, and anywhere from 20-80% have hyperlipidemia. Unchecked, NASH may lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer, and liver transplant.

Despite its prevalence and serious health consequences, NASH is relatively unknown. In a recent survey, only 6% of at-risk individuals had ever heard of NASH.

In order to raise awareness, the first International NASH Day was launched on June 12th last year. Now the second annual International NASH day is set to build off last year’s success and further spread the word about NASH and its effects.

“Our goal is to shine light on this silent epidemic.” said Donna Cryer, GLI’s President and Founder.

The golden standard for diagnosing NASH today is through biopsy which is an invasive procedure which comes with many patient burdens and high costs. One of the pressing needs in the field is to implement non-invasive and low-cost techniques for diagnosing and staging the disease. One of the discussed serum markers is Keratin 18 (K18), which is leaked out of liver cells after cell death. Cell death is understood to be one of the contributing factors for disease progression in NASH. By measuring caspase-cleaved K18 (ccK18) and total K18 through the M30® and M65® antibody assays, you can quantify the amount of apoptosis and total cell death in the liver which helps in NASH diagnosis.

“We at VLVbio want to spread information on the disease as well as increase the acceptance and adoption of non-invasive diagnostic techniques.” says Slavica Brnjic, CEO of VLVbio.

For more information, visit globalliver.org/IND

/ Reda El Khatib, MMSc, Marketing Specialist, VLVbio