The biochemist Enrique Santamaría Martínez, researcher of the area of Gene Therapy and Hepatology at CIMA of the University of Navarra, has identified more than 200 proteins that can be considered indicators of progression of steatohepatitis and liver cancer. In addition, they lay the foundation for new lines of research that could develop clinically applicable strategies to improve the diagnosis and treatment of this cancer. The work is part of his doctoral thesis , presented at School of Sciences.

As he explains, the study of liver diseases is today one of the priority objectives of biomedicine, due to the growing prevalence of these pathologies in the population. Although risk factors, such as genetics and alcohol abuse, are well known, the mechanisms involved in their development are not as well understood.

Concluding the research, he points out that "one of the biomarkers, specifically the oxidized form of apolipoprotein A1, has been detected in the serum of patients with liver cancer. It is therefore particularly relevant in the diagnostic field".

Proteomics: new technologies to study proteins

Dr. Enrique Santamaría's work demonstrates "the alteration of proteins in the liver and, consequently, of the biological functions associated with them, long before detectable alterations occur in the liver using conventional diagnostic methods". This is the case of laprohibitin, a protein involved in the generation of energy to maintain cellular activity, or regucalcin, a protein involved in the control of cellular aging, among others.

For the research carried out at the CIMA of the University of Navarra, new technologies, such as proteomics, have been used. "This technique makes it possible to study hundreds of proteins simultaneously and thus define the natural history of diseases at the molecular level and identify markers that facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of these alterations".