Researchers from Skoltech (part of the VEB.RF group) and their colleagues from the N.N. Petrov National Medical Research Center of Oncology have identified proteomic markers for monitoring liver injury and confirmed the hepatoprotective effects of plant polyphenols. If these findings are successfully validated, they will provide a scientific basis for diagnostic tests that can be used to screen and monitor patients with liver problems, as well as track disease progression and treatment effectiveness without the need for invasive biopsies. The research was published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
“We have developed a robust mass spectrometry-based multi-omics approach that enabled us to pinpoint candidate protein markers directly within liver tissue samples. These targeted proteins hold significant translational potential, paving the way for the future development of minimally invasive human blood and plasma tests to monitor and diagnose liver injury early,” explains Alexey Kononikhin, a senior research scientist at the Skoltech Biomed Technologies Center’s Laboratory of Omics Technologies and Big Data for Personalized Medicine and Health and co-author of the study.
Rather than characterizing pathology directly, protein markers show how the body’s defense mechanisms behave. According to the researchers, these findings could be useful both for preventive diagnostics and assessing patients’ responses to treatment in personalized medicine and clinical trials of new hepatoprotective drugs. This research, supported by the Russian Science Foundation’s Russian-Chinese project No. 25-44-02156, is currently the focus of scientists at the Skoltech Laboratory of Omics Technologies and Big Data for Personalized Medicine and Health headed by Professor Evgeny Nikolaev.
Plant polyphenol-based drugs demonstrated high hepatoprotective activity in mice. Their survival rates increased, and histological tests confirmed the positive effects. Furthermore, the researchers proved that the polyphenols they studied were neither toxic nor mutagenic.
These drugs are complex, multicomponent mixtures. However, the researchers succeeded in characterizing their molecular composition using advanced ultra-high-resolution ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (ICR MS). They also isolated the most biologically active fraction. New studies have confirmed the hepatoprotective effects of these drugs in an animal model of direct toxic liver injury (DTLI). Thanks to state-of-the-art omics technologies, the team gained a better understanding of the molecular processes influenced by the drugs and identified potential protein targets. These results are consistent with the team’s earlier research which demonstrated the protective effects of these drugs in a carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄)-induced subclinical liver failure model.
“We conducted a comprehensive study, from characterizing the polyphenolic compounds and assessing their safety to confirming their effectiveness in two different in vitro models. Our research demonstrated the stable hepatoprotective potential of natural polyphenolic compounds,” said Alexander Brzhozovskiy, a research scientist at the Skoltech Biomed Technologies Center’s Laboratory of Omics Technologies and Big Data for Personalized Medicine and Health and the study’s first author.
