Discovery of proteins and inhibitors causing alcoholic liver damage in South Korea

According to the Ministry of future creation science of South Korea, a research team led by Professor Cui Xingzhi of QUANNAN University and Dr Li zhehao of Korean Institute of life engineering has found proteins that play a core role in the process of alcoholic liver damage and substances that can inhibit this protein, which brings hope for the development of drugs for the treatment of alcoholic liver damage According to the news, if the continuous intake of alcohol can cause fatty liver or alcoholic hepatitis, cirrhosis can occur when the inflammation worsens Although the researchers have found that the free radicals (harmful compounds produced in the body's oxidation reaction) formed in the process of alcohol decomposition are the cause of liver damage, they have not found proteins that play a core role The team found that the formation of estrogen receptor related receptor (ERR γ) increased after the rats were continuously injected with alcohol, which promoted the formation of alcohol decomposing enzymes, thus forming free radicals The team also found a low molecular substance gsk5182 targeting err γ, which can inhibit the transcription of err γ The team injected mice with alcohol and gsk5182 and found that the formation of free radicals was blocked and liver damage was suppressed Professor Cui Xingzhi said that gsk5182 may become a candidate for the development of drugs for the treatment of alcoholic liver damage The results of this study were published in the online edition of the international academic journal gut on June 6.