User: Trienix Pharma Inc.
According to Liver Canada, about 25% of the Canadian population—nearly 8 million people—are affected by hepatic steatosis, commonly known as “fatty liver disease.” This condition, medically referred to as MASLD and MASH, currently has no treatment approved by Health Canada. By 2030, it is expected to become the leading cause of liver transplantation, underscoring the urgent need to develop new therapeutic options.
This project aims to study the effect of a new class of medications on liver health by acting on the gut microbiota—that is, the community of bacteria present in the intestine. These medications, called pro-resolving inflammation metabolite analogues (, could help the microbiota produce metabolites that are beneficial for the liver. Thanks to recent advances in genomics, the team will seek to better understand this mechanism.
The treatments developed through this project could be used to treat metabolic liver diseases such as MASLD and MASH, as well as certain rarer autoimmune diseases, such as primary biliary cholangitis or primary sclerosing cholangitis, for which treatment options remain limited.