Preventing and Reversing


Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease An Interview with Enrico Magosso, PhD


Focus: Before we get to your re- markable work on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and tocotrienols, tell us a bit about your research environment. You are an Italian scientist who moved to Malaysia to study fatty liver and neurodegenerative dis- eases. Is Malaysia a good place for this research?


Magosso: Science operates without geopolitical boundar- ies and Malaysia, besides being a wonderful country, has a very conducive environment for sci- ence. My own passion is for ap- plied sciences, mostly related to metabolic diseases such as fatty liver and neurodegenerative dis- eases. I joined Professor Yuen’s laboratory at Universiti Sains Malaysia, the top national insti- tution here, in 2002. His labora- tory already had several projects underway on tocotrienols, from pharmacokinetics to bioavailabil- ity, organ distribution and formu- lations. In Professor Yuen’s lab, all the researchers work together and collaborate with each other


closely, so knowledge is built up and shared. In 2005, our plans for large studies on tocotrienols in cardio- and neuro-protection started to come to fruition, and by 2007 we managed to secure a grant from a Malaysian Govern- ment Agency. It is fascinating to work with lesser known mem- bers of the vitamin E family, the tocotrienols, as they seem to have so much potential.


Focus: What got you interested in NAFLD?


Magosso: Family reasons, primarily. I had an uncle that had a severe manifestation, was even hospitalized, and doctors didn’t have a treatment for this disease. While the main objective of our research grant was the brain and stroke prevention, we also wanted to study patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Alpha-tocopherol, the


most studied vitamin E,


showed contradictory results in NAFLD in prior research. It has been known for a long time that tocotrienols have more potent


Enrico Magosso, Phd, Sc, BPharm, has a degree in Pharmacy from University of Pavia (Italy) and in Pharmaceutical Technology from the School of Pharmacy (London, UK). He joined Universiti Sains


14 Focus April 2013


activity than alpha-tocopherol in protection against hepatic lipid microsomal peroxidation. Essentially, this type of lipid peroxidation occurs because the accumulation of lipids in the liver cell leads to increased reactive oxygen species, oxidative stress, membrane dysfunction and ultimately cell death. We also knew that tocotrienols are preferentially distributed in the liver, in fact, tocotrienols reach their


maximum concentration


in the liver compared to other organs, and they reach higher levels than alpha-tocopherol. So we saw great potential and we started our investigation of NAFLD.


Focus: How prevalent is NAFLD and what are the serious risks of the condition?


Magosso: In western countries and Japan, the prevalence ranges from 15-30% of the population. When we started studying NAFLD in Malaysia, we had to determine the prevalence and it was similar. That’s a lot of people with NAFLD!


(Continued on page 16)


Malaysia in 2002 as researcher under the leadership of Professor Yuen Kah Hay, PhD. Presently, Dr Magosso is a Senior Lecturer with the Advanced Medical & Dental Institute of Universiti Sains Malaysia.


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