Chinese science award recognises Hong Kong medical team’s groundbreaking liver disease research
- Chinese University of Hong Kong medical researchers have shed light on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and its related cancer
- Also recognised is an engineering team at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology for their work preventing damage from unsaturated soil
The team received the second-class prize of the State Natural Science Award, China’s most prestigious award in the field, on Wednesday after 18 years of research on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is caused by excessive fat accumulation in the organ. It affects 15 to 40 per cent of the world’s population and is the most common chronic liver disease in the world, according to the university.
The team’s research shed light on the key mechanism, therapeutic targets, non-invasive diagnosis and natural history of the disease.
NAFLD comprises a wide spectrum of liver diseases, including simple steatosis and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which can progress to liver fibrosis and eventually to hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer that accounts for 90 per cent of cases.
NAFLD was found in about 30 per cent of China’s adult population, according to a study by a different team published in the peer-reviewed journal Hepatology International in March last year.
“The highest prevalences were found among regions with higher income, north China, the non-Han ethnic minorities, diabetics, and the obese,” the study said.
Led by Yu Jun, a professor at the department of medicine and therapeutics and the associate director of State Key Laboratory of digestive disease at CUHK, the team was the first to reveal the mechanism behind the disease’s progression to cancer and to find an effective drug against the cancer.