Editorial: Novel insights into liver disease-immune cell regulation, potential biomarkers and drugs

Zibing Qian ¹ Junfeng Li ^2*

• ¹ The first Clinical Medical College of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
• ² Department of Hepatology, First Hospital of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

Liver disease remains a major global health burden, with high morbidity and mortality rates (1). In recent years, continuous progress in biomedical fields such as immune regulation, biomarkers, and new drug research and development has brought new opportunities for the diagnosis and treatment of liver diseases. The complex interactions between diverse immune cell populations in the liver work together to maintain its immune function, ensuring the effective clearance of various infections and abnormal cells (2). Furthermore, the search for specific biomarkers has great significance for the diagnosis, prognosis assessment, and treatment monitoring of liver diseases. Simultaneously, drug development has also brought new hope for the treatment of liver diseases. Through in-depth study of liver immunity, potential biomarkers, and new drug development, it is helpful to better understand the pathogenesis of liver diseases, and provide new targets and methods for disease prevention, diagnosis, and individualized treatment. Notably, our topic explores emerging liver disease regulatory mechanisms, potential biomarkers, and therapeutic strategies, providing a roadmap for future liver disease research and clinical translation. Ananya et al. proposed that previous research focuses on the use of immune cells to prevent autoimmune diseases, while using specific blockers to inhibit their activity or alter their phenotypes to reduce the immunosuppressive properties in the tumor microenvironment. However, in recent years, the research on the mechanism of programmed death of immune cells has provided a new idea for the treatment of immune diseases (3). It has been found that there are various ways of programmed death of immune cells, such as apoptosis, necroptosis, autophagy, pyroptosis and ferroptosis. Proper regulation helps to maintain immune homeostasis, but the imbalance may also lead to autoimmune diseases. Immune cells can limit their attack effects on target organs through specific programmed death mechanisms, such as autophagy and necroptosis, thus avoiding tissue damage (4,5). Secondly, excessive programmed death of immune cells may weaken the body's ability to fight infection and increase susceptibility to infection (6). This indirectly suggests that the precise regulation of the immune cell programmed cell death pathway can inhibit the attack of immune cells on the liver to a certain extent, thus protecting liver cells from further damage. It has become clear that targeted modulation of the programmed death pathway of immune cells is a frontier area of immunotherapy research. By enhancing the survival and function of immune cells, it promotes the clearance of abnormal cells while reducing damage to normal tissues (7). This strategy is applicable to cancer, autoimmune diseases and chronic infections, demonstrating good adaptability and versatility. Notably, targeted modulation of the immune cell programmed cell death pathway may become a new strategy for the treatment of immune-mediated liver injury. Compared with traditional immune modulation, this approach can regulate the immune system more selectively and reduce the occurrence of adverse effects.The regulation of immune cells affects the progression and prognosis of almost all liver diseases, and exploring this mechanism is crucial for biomarker development.The discovery of biomarkers not only reflects the status of immune cells, but also Currently, the application and research of metabolomics in the diagnosis of hereditary metabolic defects, tumors, liver diseases, cardiovascular diseases, psychiatric disorders and other diseases has made rapid development (14). In the future, these technologies will further advance the understanding of the complexity and dynamics of the immune system, provide higher-level support for the continuous advancement of biomedical fields such as biomarkers and new drug discovery, and facilitate their earlier entry into clinical applications.