Dr Ashwin Dhanda
Profiles

Dr Ashwin Dhanda

Honorary Associate Professor in Hepatology

Peninsula Medical School (Faculty of Health)

Role

I am a Consultant Hepatologist and Clinician Scientist with an interest in translational research relating to inflammatory liver diseases, particularly alcohol-related liver disease. I am part of a national MRC funded consortium aiming to minimise death from alcoholic hepatitis and am leading a workstream to validate a novel bioassay to measure response to glucocorticoid (steroid) therapy. I am seeking biomarkers of survival from alcohol-related liver disease including measures of immune function and circulating microbiome.


On a national level I lead the British Association for the Study of the Liver (BASL) Special Interest Group for alcohol-related liver disease (https://www.basl.org.uk/index.cfm/content/page/cid/35). This multidisciplinary group brings together active clinicians and researchers to develop national studies and trials in alcohol-related liver disease.

I am an active clinician as a Consultant Hepatologist and manage patients with acute and chronic liver disease at the South West Liver Unit at Derriford Hospital, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (https://www.plymouthhospitals.nhs.uk/dhanda-a).

Qualifications

BSc (Hons), University of Edinburgh 2000

M BChB, University of Edinburgh 2003

MRCP, Royal College of Physicians of London 2006

PGCert Health Education, St George's University of London 2007

PhD, University of Bristol 2014



Roles on external bodies

Lead of British Association for the Study of the Liver Special Interest Group on alcohol-related liver disease
Topic Expert for NICE Clinical Guidelines Update Committee for Alcohol Use Disorders
Committee member of the British Society of Gastroenterology Liver Clinical Research Group

Key publications are highlighted

Journals
Articles
Dhanda A, Atkinson S, Vergis N, Enki D, Fisher A, Clough R, Cramp M & Thursz M 2020 'Trace element deficiency is highly prevalent and associated with infection and mortality in patients with alcoholic hepatitis' Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics , DOI PEARL
Dhanda AD, Yates E, Schewitz-Bowers LP, Lait PJ, Lee RWJ & Cramp ME 2019 'Ex Vivo T Cell Cytokine Expression Predicts Survival in Patients with Severe Alcoholic Hepatitis' Gut and Liver , DOI PEARL
Dhanda AD, Williams EL, Yates E, Lait PJP, Schewitz-Bowers LP, Hegazy D, Cramp ME, Collins PL & Lee RWJ 2019 'Intermediate Monocytes in Acute Alcoholic Hepatitis Are Functionally Activated and Induce IL-17 Expression in CD4+ T Cells' The Journal of Immunology 203, (12) 3190-3198 , DOI
Forrest EH, Storey N, Sinha R, Atkinson SR, Vergis N, Richardson P, Masson S, Ryder S, Thursz MR & Allison M 2019 'Baseline neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio predicts response to corticosteroids and is associated with infection and renal dysfunction in alcoholic hepatitis' Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics 50, (4) 442-453 , DOI
Bennett K, Enki DG, Thursz M, Cramp ME & Dhanda AD 2019 'Systematic review with meta-analysis: high mortality in patients with nonsevere alcoholic hepatitis' Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics , DOI PEARL
Forrest EH, Atkinson SR, Richardson P, Masson S, Ryder S, Thursz MR, Allison M, McCune A, Gleeson D & Austin A 2017 'Application of prognostic scores in the STOPAH trial: Discriminant function is no longer the optimal scoring system in alcoholic hepatitis' Journal of Hepatology 68, (3) 511-518 , DOI PEARL
Dhanda AD, Sinha A, Hunt V, Saleem S, Cramp ME & Collins PL 2017 'Infection does not increase long-term mortality in patients with acute severe alcoholic hepatitis treated with corticosteroids' World Journal of Gastroenterology 23, (11) 2052-2052 , DOI PEARL
Williams EL, Stimpson ML, Collins PL, Enki DG, Sinha A, Lee RW & Dhanda AD 2016 'Development and validation of a novel bioassay to determine glucocorticoid sensitivity' Biomarker Research 4, 26-26 , DOI PEARL
Liu B, Dhanda A, Hirani S, Williams EL, Sen HN, Martinez Estrada F, Ling D, Thompson I, Casady M & Li Z 2015 'CD14++CD16+ Monocytes Are Enriched by Glucocorticoid Treatment and Are Functionally Attenuated in Driving Effector T Cell Responses' The Journal of Immunology 194, (11) 5150-5160 , DOI
Schewitz-Bowers LP, Lait PJP, Copland DA, Chen P, Wu W, Dhanda AD, Vistica BP, Williams EL, Liu B & Jawad S 2015 'Glucocorticoid-resistant Th17 cells are selectively attenuated by cyclosporine A' Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, (13) 4080-4085 , DOI
Dhanda AD 2015 'Immune dysfunction in acute alcoholic hepatitis' World Journal of Gastroenterology 21, (42) 11904-11904 , DOI
Powter L, Beale A, Probert B & Dhanda A 2014 'Development and validation of a tool to select patients for admission to medical short stay units' Clinical Medicine 14, (4) 371-375 , DOI
Dhanda AD, di Mambro AJ, Hunt VL, McCune CA, Dayan CM, Dick AD, Lee RWJ & Collins PL 2014 'Long‐term outcome in patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis can be reliably determined using an in vitro measure of steroid sensitivity' Hepatology 61, (3) 1099-1099 , DOI
Hanna MS, Portal AJ, Dhanda AD & Przemioslo R 2013 'UK wide survey on the prevention of post-ERCP pancreatitis' Frontline Gastroenterology 5, (2) 103-110 , DOI
Dhanda AD 2013 'Is liver biopsy necessary in the management of alcoholic hepatitis?' World Journal of Gastroenterology 19, (44) 7825-7825 , DOI
Dhanda AD, Creed TJ, Greenwood R, Sands BE & Probert CS 2012 'Can endoscopy be avoided in the assessment of ulcerative colitis in clinical trials?' Inflammatory Bowel Diseases 18, (11) 2056-2062 , DOI
Sands BE, Sandborn WJ, Creed TJ, Dayan CM, Dhanda AD, Van Assche GA, Greguš M, Sood A, Choudhuri G & Stempien MJ 2012 'Basiliximab Does Not Increase Efficacy of Corticosteroids in Patients With Steroid-Refractory Ulcerative Colitis' Gastroenterology 143, (2) 356-364.e1 , DOI
Ayres LRO, Clarke S, Digby-Bell J, Dhanda AD, Dharmasiri S, Caddick K & Collins PL 2012 'Fragility fracture risk in cirrhosis: a comparison of the fracture risk assessment tool, British Society of Gastroenterology and National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines' Frontline Gastroenterology 3, (4) 220-227 , DOI
Dhanda A, Lee R & Collins P 2012 'Is primary biliary cirrhosis a steroid-sensitive autoimmune disease?' Hepatology Research 42, (6) 619-620 , DOI
Dhanda AD 2012 'Molecular targets in the treatment of alcoholic hepatitis' World Journal of Gastroenterology 18, (39) 5504-5504 , DOI
Dawson C, Dhanda A, Conway-Campbell B, DiMambro A, Lightman S & Dayan C 2011 'NFκB and glucocorticoid receptor activity in steroid resistance' Journal of Receptors and Signal Transduction 32, (1) 29-35 , DOI
Conference Papers
Dhanda A, Yates E & Cramp M 2018 'Corticosteroid treatment is associated with a resolution of altered CD4+ T cell phenotype in patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis' 1-/-0/1900 1-/-0/1900 Elsevier BV S815-S815 , DOI
Dhanda A, Atkinson S & Thursz M 2017 'Variation in the use of corticosteroids for the treatment of acute severe alcoholic hepatitis in the post-STOPAH era: results of a UK national survey' 1-/-0/1900 1-/-0/1900 Elsevier BV S345-S346 , DOI PEARL
Ahmed A, Dhanda A, Hegazy D, Felmlee D, Sheridan D & Cramp M 2016 'Sustained viral clearance of HCV with DAA treatment is associated with restoration of effector T cell phenotype' 1-/-0/1900 1-/-0/1900 745A-745A
Posters
Yates E, Cramp M & Dhanda A Yates E, Cramp M & Dhanda A 0 'A NOVEL FUNCTIONAL BIOASSAY PREDICTS 90-DAY SURVIVAL IN PATIENTS WITH SEVERE ALCOHOLIC HEPATITIS' 01/01/1900 01/01/1900 Author Site , DOI PEARL
Dhanda A, Williams E, Yates E, Collins P, Lee R & Cramp M Dhanda A, Williams E, Yates E, Collins P, Lee R & Cramp M 0 'Intermediate (CD14++CD16+) monocytes from patients with acute severe alcoholic hepatitis are activated and functionally similar to classical (CD14++CD16−) monocytes' 01/01/1900 01/01/1900 , DOI