Adiponectin, leptin, and IGF-1 are useful diagnostic and stratification biomarkers of NAFLD

[EN] Background: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease where liver biopsy remains the gold standard for diagnosis. Here we aimed to evaluate the role of circulating adiponectin, leptin, and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) levels as non-invasive NAFLD biomarkers and assess their correlation with the metabolome. Materials and Methods: Leptin, adiponectin, and IGF-1 serum levels were measured by ELISA in two independent cohorts of biopsy-proven obese NAFLD patients and healthy-liver controls (discovery: 38 NAFLD, 13 controls; validation: 194 NAFLD, 31 controls) and correlated with clinical data, histology, genetic parameters, and serum metabolomics. Results: In both cohorts, leptin increased in NAFLD vs. controls (discovery: AUROC 0.88; validation: AUROC 0.83; p < 0.0001). The leptin levels were similar between obese and non-obese healthy controls, suggesting that obesity is not a confounding factor. In the discovery cohort, adiponectin was lower in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) vs. non-alcoholic fatty liver (AUROC 0.87; p < 0.0001). For the validation cohort, significance was attained for homozygous for PNPLA3 allele c.444C (AUROC 0.63; p < 0.05). Combining adiponectin with specific serum lipids improved the assay performance (AUROC 0.80; p < 0.0001). For the validation cohort, IGF-1 was lower with advanced fibrosis (AUROC 0.67, p<0.05), but combination with international normalized ratio (INR) and ferritin increased the assay performance (AUROC 0.81; p < 0.01). Conclusion: Serum leptin discriminates NAFLD, and adiponectin combined with specific lipids stratifies NASH. IGF-1, INR, and ferritin distinguish advanced fibrosis.CR was funded by FEDER through the COMPETE program and by national funds through Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PTDC/MED-FAR/29097/2017—LISBOA-01- 0145-FEDER-029097) and by European Horizon 2020 (H2020- MSCA-RISE-2016-734719). This work was also supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (PD/BD/135467/2017) and Portuguese Association for the Study of Liver/MSD 2017. JB was funded by Spanish Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) (PI15/01132, PI18/01075 and Miguel Servet Program CON14/00129 and CPII19/00008), co-financed by Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CIBERehd, Spain), La Caixa Scientific Foundation (HR17-00601), Fundación Científica de la Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer, and European Horizon 2020 (ESCALON project: H2020-SC1-BHC-2018-2020)

Adiponectin, Leptin, and IGF-1 Are Useful Diagnostic and Stratification Biomarkers of NAFLD

Background: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease where liver biopsy remains the gold standard for diagnosis. Here we aimed to evaluate the role of circulating adiponectin, leptin, and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) levels as non-invasive NAFLD biomarkers and assess their correlation with the metabolome.Materials and Methods: Leptin, adiponectin, and IGF-1 serum levels were measured by ELISA in two independent cohorts of biopsy-proven obese NAFLD patients and healthy-liver controls (discovery: 38 NAFLD, 13 controls; validation: 194 NAFLD, 31 controls) and correlated with clinical data, histology, genetic parameters, and serum metabolomics.Results: In both cohorts, leptin increased in NAFLD vs. controls (discovery: AUROC 0.88; validation: AUROC 0.83; p &lt; 0.0001). The leptin levels were similar between obese and non-obese healthy controls, suggesting that obesity is not a confounding factor. In the discovery cohort, adiponectin was lower in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) vs. non-alcoholic fatty liver (AUROC 0.87; p &lt; 0.0001). For the validation cohort, significance was attained for homozygous for PNPLA3 allele c.444C (AUROC 0.63; p &lt; 0.05). Combining adiponectin with specific serum lipids improved the assay performance (AUROC 0.80; p &lt; 0.0001). For the validation cohort, IGF-1 was lower with advanced fibrosis (AUROC 0.67, p &lt; 0.05), but combination with international normalized ratio (INR) and ferritin increased the assay performance (AUROC 0.81; p &lt; 0.01).Conclusion: Serum leptin discriminates NAFLD, and adiponectin combined with specific lipids stratifies NASH. IGF-1, INR, and ferritin distinguish advanced fibrosis

A Data Analysis and Modelling Framework for the Evaluation of Interactive Information Retrieval

Over the last two decades, Interactive Information Retrieval (IIR) has established a new direction within the long tradition of IR that introduces the user at its center and poses new challenges for system evaluation. IR systems can improve performance by utilizing information about the entire interactive process of search. This approach has so far only been initially explored [1,2] with much potential for the future. This demonstration describes an extensible data analysis and modelling framework that enables researchers to integrate, explore and analyze interactive experiment data obtained from task-based IIR experiments and build and test models of interactive user behavior

Attentional Modulation of Auditory Event-Related Potentials in a Brain-Computer Interface

Motivated by the particular problems involved in communicating with "locked-in" paralysed patients, we aim to develop a brain-computer interface that uses auditory stimuli. We describe a paradigm that allows a user to make a binary decision by focusing attention on one of two concurrent auditory stimulus sequences. Using Support Vector Machine classification and Recursive Channel Elimination on the independent components of averaged event-related potentials, we show that an untrained user‘s EEG data can be classified with an encouragingly high level of accuracy. This suggests that it is possible for users to modulate EEG signals in a single trial by the conscious direction of attention, well enough to be useful in BCI