Metadoxine

Oxidative stress is produced by imbalance between reactive oxygen species and antioxidant systems. This state is frequently associated with chronic diseases like obesity, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and hepatic steatosis. In the liver, the oxidative stress may trigger the progression of fatty liver disease, from triglyceride accumulation to inflammation, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Thus, the attenuation of oxidative stress, could be an important therapeutic target to lessen the severity of the disease. Until now, there is not a medical treatment to cure non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, but therapies aimed at reducing oxidative stress have been proposed. Metadoxine, an ionic complex of pyridoxine-pyrrolidone molecule, acts as a synthetic antioxidant, forming traps that can reduce free radicals; likewise, metadoxine has a proven capacity to reduce fat liver in alcoholic hepatitis. Finally, in fact that alcoholic and non-alcoholic liver diseases share molecular mechanisms in the generation of oxidative stress, the investigators propose metadoxine as a posssible modifier of the oxidative stress in non-alcoholic liver disease, prediabetic patients.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of metadoxine as a therapy for patients with biopsy-proven non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.