# Fumarates for Alcoholic Liver Disease

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · 2022 · $190,928

## Abstract

Abstract
Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) remains the leading lethal liver condition, and the primary reason
for transplantation. There is still no effective therapy. Dimethyl fumarate (DMF), a monomethyl
fumarate (MMF) prodrug, is an FDA proved therapy for neural degenerative diseases and has
We have developed a novel
analogue molecule nicotinamide fumarate (NMF) that carries optimized pharmacokinetic
characters. Our preliminary data show that NMF significantly ameliorates alcoholic liver injury in
mice, and is superior to DMF.
been recently reported to rescue alcoholic liver injury in mice.
 We propose that NMF elicits its protection via three pathways:
Nrf2-driven anti-oxidative reaction, Hca2-mediated anti-inflammatory response, and
mitochondrial induction. In this study, we will evaluate the preventive and therapeutic efficacy of
NMF comparing with RTA408 a drug solely inducing Nrf2, using mouse models of ALD. We will
also identify the mechanistic signaling by focusing on Nrf2, Hca2 and mitochondrial functions.
The study may lead to the development of new therapeutic modalities and translational studies
in the future.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10452220
- **Project number:** 1R21AA029558-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
- **Principal Investigator:** Xiaosong Joy Jiang
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $190,928
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-10 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10452220

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10452220, Fumarates for Alcoholic Liver Disease (1R21AA029558-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10452220. Licensed CC0.

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