- Browse by Author
Browsing by Author "Vargas, Hugo"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item An Open-Label, Dose-Escalation Study to Assess the Safety and Efficacy of IL-22 Agonist F-652 in Patients With Alcohol-associated Hepatitis(Wolters Kluwer, 2020-08) Arab, Juan P.; Sehrawat, Tejasav S.; Simonetto, Douglas A.; Verma, Vikas K.; Feng, Dechun; Tang, Tom; Dreyer, Kevin; Yan, Xiaoqiang; Daley, William L.; Sanyal, Arun; Chalasani, Naga; Radaeva, Svetlana; Yang, Liu; Vargas, Hugo; Ibacache, Mauricio; Gao, Bin; Gores, Gregory J.; Malhi, Harmeet; Kamath, Patrick S.; Shah, Vijay H.; Medicine, School of MedicineBackground and aims: Interleukin-22 has beneficial effects on inflammation and impaired hepatic regeneration that characterize alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH). F-652 is a recombinant fusion protein of human interleukin-22 and immunoglobulin G2 fragment crystallizable. This study aims to assess the safety and efficacy signals of F-652 in patients with moderate and severe AH. Approach and results: A phase-2 dose-escalating study was carried out. F-652 (10 μg/kg, 30 μg/kg, or 45 μg/kg) administered on days 1 and 7 was tested in 3 patients each with moderate (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease [MELD] scores: 11-20) and severe AH (MELD scores: 21-28). Safety was defined by absence of serious adverse events and efficacy was assessed by Lille score, changes in MELD score, and serum bilirubin and aminotransferases at days 28 and 42. Three independent propensity-matched comparator patient cohorts were used. Plasma extracellular vesicles and multiplex serum cytokines were measured to assess inflammation and hepatic regeneration. Eighteen patients (9 moderate and 9 severe AH) were enrolled, 66% were male, and the mean age was 48 years. The half-life of F-652 following the first dose was 61-85 hours. There were no serious adverse events leading to discontinuation. The MELD score and serum aminotransferases decreased significantly at days 28 and 42 from baseline (P < 0.05). Day-7 Lille score was 0.45 or less in 83% patients as compared with 6%, 12%, and 56% among the comparator cohorts. Extracellular vesicle counts decreased significantly at day 28 (P < 0.013). Cytokine inflammatory markers were down-regulated, and regeneration markers were up-regulated at days 28 and 42. Conclusions: F-652 is safe in doses up to 45 μg/kg and associated with a high rate of improvement as determined by Lille and MELD scores, reductions in markers of inflammation and increases in markers of hepatic regeneration. This study supports the need for randomized placebo-controlled trials to test the efficacy of F-652 in AH.Item Persistence of Virologic Response after Liver Transplant in Hepatitis C Patients Treated with Ledipasvir/Sofosbuvir Plus Ribavirin Pretransplant(2017) Yoshida, Eric M.; Kwo, Paul; Agarwal, Kosh; Duvoux, Christophe; Durand, François; Peck-Radosavljevic, Markus; Lilly, Leslie; Willems, Bernard; Vargas, Hugo; Kumar, Princy; Brown, Robert S.; Horsmans, Yves; De-Oertel, Shampa; Arterburn, Sarah; Dvory-Sobol, Hadas; Brainard, Diana M.; McHutchison, John G.; Terrault, Norah; Rizzetto, Mario; Müllhaupt, Beat; Medicine, School of MedicineIntroduction. Recurrence of HCV infection in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) at the time of liver transplantation is nearly universal and reduces the likelihood of graft and patient survival. Materials and methods. We evaluated outcomes of 17 patients (16 with HCV genotype 1 and 1 with genotype 4) who received up to 12 or 24 weeks of ledipasvir/sofosbuvir plus ribavirin prior to or up to the time of liver transplant in the SOLAR-1 and SOLAR-2 trials. In all patients, HCV RNA was < 15 IU/mL prior to transplant. At screening, 6 patients were Child-Pugh-Turcotte (CPT) class B and 11 were CPT class C. Seven patients underwent transplant prior to completing assigned treatment, with 4 treated for < 12 weeks. The primary endpoint was posttransplant virologic response 12 weeks after transplant (pTVR12) in patients with HCV RNA < 15 IU/mL at their last measurement prior to transplant. Results. Overall, 94% (16/17) achieved pTVR12. All who achieved pTVR12 received at least 11 weeks of treatment. The single patient who did not achieve pTVR12 discontinued study drug on day 21 and underwent liver transplant the following day. The patient had HCV RNA < 15 IU/mL at post-transplant week 2 but died 15 days post-transplant because of multi-organ failure and septic shock. Conclusion. Among a small population of HCV patients with decompensated cirrhosis, virologic response to ledipasvir / sofosbuvir plus ribavirin prior to liver transplantation was maintained after transplantation, even if treatment was stopped early. Administration of ledipasvir / sofosbuvir plus ribavirin before liver transplant can prevent post-transplant HCV recurrence.