Muscle-Liver Crosstalk and Sarcopenia in Chronic Liver Disease: Novel Techniques and Clinical Evidence

Recent studies highlight an important and independent relationship between sarcopenia and chronic liver diseases, particularly non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). While the impact of sarcopenia in patients with end-stage liver disease (ESLD) or decompensated cirrhosis is well established, emerging data underscores the importance of detecting sarcopenia in patients with early NAFLD.

Current muscle-based sarcopenia definitions fail to detect sarcopenia in the population with obesity, which is overrepresented in NAFLD. Until recently, the skeletal muscle-liver crosstalk and the impact of interventions on skeletal muscle have been largely overlooked in the research for NAFLD treatments. Growing evidence places skeletal muscles’ impact on insulin resistance and systemic inflammation at the center of the NAFLD pathogenic cascade.

In this webinar, experts in liver and metabolic diseases, and imaging, will review the latest research on how to assess and monitor sarcopenia in chronic liver disease. Research regarding how sarcopenia may impact chronic liver disease treatment, the current pathophysiological mechanisms linking skeletal muscle metabolism and sarcopenia to liver disease, and how these may be used to discover and develop new treatments will be explored. Finally, they will also discuss how rapid whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been utilized for quantitative, standardized, and objective body composition assessments in recent sarcopenia research.

Speakers

Manu Chakravarthy, MD, PhD, Executive Vice President of Clinical Development, Chief Medical Officer, Axcella Health Inc.

Manu Chakravarthy provides strategic direction and oversight for Axcella’s clinical research and development activities, including the clinical investigation of the company’s product candidates. Prior to his current role, he served as the Global Head of External R&D in diabetes and cardiovascular research at Eli Lilly & Co. Earlier, he spent seven years at Merck & Co. serving as a Distinguished Scientist in Translational Medicine. Dr. Chakravarthy is Board-certified in Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism and continues to serve patients as an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Rutgers School of Medicine, NJ. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, clinical and postdoctoral fellowship in Endocrinology and Lipid Metabolism at Washington Univ. School of Medicine in St. Louis. He received his medical and doctorate degrees from the University of Texas Medical School and the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

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Mohammad Shadab Siddiqui, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University

Mohammad Shadab Siddiqui received his medical degree at Wake Forest University and did his Internal Medicine Residency and Gastroenterology and Hepatology Fellowship at Northwestern University McGaw Medical Center. He pursued an additional year of fellowship in Advanced and Transplant Hepatology at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). After completing his fellowship, he joined VCU faculty and pursued a career in academic medicine evaluating the role of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Over the years he has expanded his research that now includes biomarker development, impact of NASH on liver transplantation and the cross-talk between liver and sarcopenic obesity.

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Mikael Forsgren, PhD, Senior Scientist, Liver Disease Lead Scientist, AMRA Medical Research

Mikael Forsgren is the lead scientist for liver diseases at AMRA Medical Research as part of AMRA Medical with the responsibility of developing and leading liver disease application projects. He has been involved in liver-related research using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and spectroscopy since 2009 – both in academia and industry. He has a MSc in biotechnology and PhD in medical sciences. In his doctoral thesis he explored MR methods to replace the liver needle biopsy and quantify liver function. In addition to exploring body and muscle composition in liver diseases, he has applied his MR expertise to assess muscle composition in COPD, fibromyalgia syndrome, and physical exercise. Prior to joining AMRA in 2017 he worked as a consultant for Wolfram MathCore, where he collaborated with several pharma companies, academic institutions, and the FDA. He currently holds an adjunct position at Linköping University and is a member of the university’s Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization.

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