Liver Adverse Outcome Pathways: What’s in for the Hepatologist?

Abstract

Adverse outcome pathways are tools to capture and visualize mechanisms underlying adverse effects, and are currently emerging in the areas of toxicology and chemical risk assessment. Less attention has yet been paid to potential clinical applications of adverse outcome pathways, including in the hepatology field. Liver adverse outcome pathways can serve the development and optimization of the clinically relevant animal models of liver diseases for fundamental and translational research as well as for testing new liver therapeutics. They also can aid the characterization of novel and more specific diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of liver disease. Full clinical exploitation in these directions requires further technical optimization of adverse outcome pathways as well as intensive interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration.