Driving research into Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD): the NAFLD BioResource

NAFLD is a common group of conditions where there is accumulation of excess fat in the livers of people who drink little or no alcohol. It is the most common cause of liver disease in Western countries and affects approximately 30-40% of the UK population.   

As of 2022, the total economic burden of NAFLD in the UK is reported, using Markov modelling, to be ~£31.26 billion; which is made up of £5.24 billion in direct costs and a further £26.03 billion in societal costs. There are no approved therapies, and data from phase 2 trials suggests response rates of 15-35%, highlighting the importance of more personalised medical treatment. 

To address this gap, the NAFLD BioResource was awarded by NIHR as a joint collaboration between the Birmingham, Nottingham and Newcastle BRCs, with Birmingham leading this national effort.

The NAFLD BioResource aims to improve access for patients and investigators to research, by opening sites across England. By doing so, it will create a repository of data, samples and research-keen volunteers that are representative of the NAFLD patient population. This repository will be used by academics, researchers and industry partners to accelerate their research, produce better treatments, and make clinical trials more efficient, ultimately leading to better diagnosis and treatments for patients. 

Improvements in diagnosis and treatments will correlate with a reduction in economic burden of disease; making the UK more attractive to host trials and leverage additional research funding.

As of 2022, the NAFLD BioResource has recruited 1900 volunteers, all of whom have some form of NAFLD, ranging from simple fatty liver to a more advanced stage of cirrhosis. Recruitment has been led by >50 teams across England. 

Each volunteer has provided biological samples for biobanking, and agreed for these samples to undergo genomic analysis. Volunteers have enriched their samples by also providing clinical and health and lifestyle data about themselves.  

This combination of samples and data has started to shape a highly valuable resource, that will allow researchers from academia and industry to utilise in order to catalyse their research into the diagnosis, causes, severity and progression of NAFLD (as well as research into other conditions too).