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Galectin Therapeutics Announces 2 Liver Cirrhosis Scientific Presentations at the EASL International Liver Congress™ 2022
NORCROSS, Ga., June 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Galectin Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: GALT), the leading developer of therapeutics that target galectin-3,
About this update from Galectin Therapeutics Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"NORCROSS, Ga., June 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Galectin Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: GALT), the leading developer of therapeutics that target galectin-3, announced today two scientific presentations regarding the use of artificial intelligence to analyze liver biopsies of patients affected with cirrhosis of the liver due to Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH). The data originates from the Company’s phase 2 study (NCT02462967) that evaluated its proprietary drug candidate belapectin in patients with NASH cirrhosis who have developed portal hypertension. Portal hypertension is a severe clinical complication of the disease that marks a significant progression towards liver failure and for which, currently, no treatment is registered. The presentations will be delivered by Dr. Mazen Noureddin of the Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases, Comprehensive Transplant Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States, during the International Liver Congress™ 2022 hosted by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) on June 22-26, 2022 in London, U.K. The first abstract (FRI509) focuses on the use of second-harmonic generation microscopy for automated detection of septa and nodules in liver biopsies of NASH cirrhosis patients. As current staging systems oversimplify all degrees of cirrhosis into one category, artificial intelligence can be used to develop more sophisticated algorithms to correlate with the natural history of the disease, including the development of portal hypertension. The second abstract (FRI 516) focuses on derivation of machine learning histologic scores that correlate with portal pressures and the development of esophageal varices. Esophageal varices represent a severe clinical complication of portal hypertension, as they can bleed and, consequently, be immediately life-threatening. The Machine Learning algorithm used could predict the degree of portal hypertension and the development of varices in patients with portal hypertension. Dr Pol Boudes, Chief Medical Officer of Galectin Therapeutics commented: “Galectin Therapeutics has accumulated significant clinical development expertise in liver cirrhosis and the management of portal hypertension, which represents one of the most significant clinical complications of the disease. This field has been neglected by drug developers for f...