Related Specialty: Hepatology

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​"Drug-induced Liver Injury (DILI) is an important cause for acute liver failure and one of the most frequent causes for failures in drug development. In contrast to dose-dependent DILI (e.g. Acetaminophen-Overdose) idiosyncratic DILI (iDILI) is influenced by various host factors. Correct identification and causality assessment of iDILI is one of the most complex challenges in hepatology: In absence of a postive test, iDILI diagnosis as yet relies on exclusion of other etiologies and expert opinion as gold standard. In patients with polymedication the iDILI causing compound  may be impossible to identify.

In  collaboration CUHK and LMU evaluate a novel in vitro test developed at the LMU that is based on patient derived hepatocyte-like cells generated from peripheral blood monocytes (MH cells). By in vitro exposure and toxicity testing of the patient derived MH cells to the drugs implicated in the putative iDILI-episode, iDILI can be diagnosed or ruled out. Moreover, identification of the culprit agent is intended.

Aim of the collaboration is to evaluate the performance of the MH cell test in patients with different demographics and in parallel set-up a study cohort to directly compare iDILI in Europe and Asia, causative agents, patient characteristics and outcomes. The test is performed in the facilities of MetaHeps GmbH,near LMU campus  under an ISO certified Quality Management System. Additionally, there will be an investigation of functional charateristics of Chinese and European patient derived MH cells."

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