Paul Hockings, Senior Director MR Imaging at Antaros Medical, will present next week at the 7th Obesity & NASH Drug Development Summit. His talk ‘Underneath the lost kilos – Imaging the effects of weight loss in clinical trials’ will cover how imaging can be used in drug development to understand weight loss and its effects on downstream organs, including the liver.
More specifically, he will be discussing the following topics:
- The importance of understanding weight loss with novel anti-obesity drugs and the differentiated effects of different drug mechanisms
- How imaging can be used in drug development to further our understanding of where the weight is actually lost using body and muscle composition as well as looking at other ectopic fat depots
- Imaging can be used to investigate the effects of weight loss on downstream organs and disease states including the liver, kidney, and heart
To find out more, join us at the 7th Obesity & NASH Drug Development Summit on Wednesday Nov 29 @ 09:30 EST to hear Paul’s presentation on the benefits of using imaging in obesity and MASH drug development.
Obesity and MASH – global health problems with need for further understanding
Obesity and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH; previously called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH) are significant global health problems that are rapidly increasing in prevalence. The underlying pathophysiology driving drug development in obesity, MASH, and other downstream organ effects is undeniably linked. Therapies for metabolic diseases have been shown to affect weight loss and body composition, as well as other tissue-specific effects in downstream organs including the liver, kidney and heart.
The overall complexity and interrelatedness of these mechanisms and processes create a need for biomarkers that can help with furthering our understanding and inform decision-making throughout the drug development process. Advanced imaging techniques like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) can be used to investigate insulin resistance, body composition, and multiple end organ effects.