About

This is a clinical research group focused on the diagnostics and treatment of medical complications of Substance Use Disorder (SUD). The group performs patient-centred research on the most frequent clinical complications. Its main objective is to deepen the knowledge of SUD and the associated complications. Its researchers pay special attention into alcohol, cocaine, cannabis, opiates and tobacco.

The SUD treatment is performed in the framework of a general and university hospital that provides secondary prevention for those that have recovered from a medical complication. The group is part of a research state platform (Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientada a Resultados en Salud -RICORS- / Red de Investigación en Atención Primaria de Adicciones -RIAPAd-). RIAPAd is constituted by 18 research groups whose objectives are to analyse the pathophysiology, clinical manifestations, and sanitary impact of SUD to ultimately provide tools for therapeutic and other interventions in order to help reduce the impact of substance use in society.

The group is also recognised as a Consolidated Research Group by the AGAUR, Generalitat de Catalunya (2021 SGR 00945, 2017 SGR 316) and in 2022 has participated in five different projects and led one.

Keywords: Addiction medicine, Substance Use Disorder, medical complications, Alcohol Use Disorder

Medical Complications of Substance Abuse research group

Research lines

Medical complications of alcohol use disorder

To characterize medical comorbidity of patients requesting treatment for alcohol use disorder: Alcoholic liver disease, immunological alterations, malnutrition, cardiovascular risk, neurological risk and viral infections, amongst other pathologies being studied.

Alcohol-associated morbidity and mortality

To describe the long-term evolution and outcomes of patients who abuse drugs or alcohol and knowing the causes of death as a function of comorbidity.

Therapeutic interventions in alcohol use disorder

Monitoring viral infections (HCV, HIV, HBV) in patients with SUD

  • To establish diagnostics, clinical evaluation and access to treatment of common viral infections (i.e., HIV, Hepatitis B and C) in patients with substance use disorder
  • To analyze the risk of developing disease such as  AIDS, liver cirrhosis or cancer and death

Intestinal permeability, systemic inflammation and cardiometabolic alterations

To study markers of inflammation, intestinal permeability and oxidative stress in a cohort of patients with alcohol use disorder.

Immune alterations associated with alcohol use disorder

To characterize the alterations of cellular immunity subsets in patients with alcohol use disorder according to the severity of alcoholic liver disease and to determine the molecular mechanisms that make alcohol use disorder at risk of immunodeficiency.


 

Active projects

Alcoholic hepatitis: immunophenotypes, plasmatic protein expression and RNA sequencing at early diagnose of patients with alcohol use disorder

PI: Paola Zuluaga, Robert Muga
Programme: Fondo de Investigación en Salud (FIS)
Funding agency: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII)
Agency code: PI20/00883

This research line analyses immunity activation phenotypes, the lymphocyte differentiation, and the role of specific serum proteins involved in the hepatic inflammatory reaction of patients with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD).

Intestinal microbiota and alcohol use disorder. Impact of sex and concomitant use of cocaine and/or cannabis

PI: Daniel Fuster
Programme: Fondo de Investigación en Salud (FIS)
Funding agency: Ministerio de Sanidad, Plan Nacional Sobre Drogas.​​​​​
Agency code: PNSD 2020I024

This research analyses immunity activation phenotypes, the lymphocyte differentiation, and the role of specific serum proteins involved in the hepatic inflammatory reaction of patients with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD).

Multicentric study of adult people with alcohol use disorder that seek treatment for the first time (CohRTA Study)

PI: Robert Muga
Funding agency: Ministerio de Sanidad, Plan Nacional Sobre Drogas.​​​​​
Agency code: PNSD 2018I020.

The objective of this study conducted in 9 Spanish centres is to collect clinical information in a wide series of AUD patients that start treatment for the first time and to analyse its impact on health.

Red de Trastornos Adictivos. Redes Temáticas de Investigación Cooperativa en Salud (RETICS)

PI: Robert Muga
Funding agency: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII). Ministerio de Ciencia y Competitividad
Agency code: RD16/0017/0003

Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientada a Resultados en Salud (RICORS)

PI: Robert Muga
Funding agency: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), financed by NextGenerationEU
Agency code: RD21/0009/0004

Ajuts per donar suport a les activitats dels grups de recerca (SGR 2017-2019). Grup de Recerca Consolidat

PI: Robert Muga
Funding agency: Departament de Recerca i Universitats, Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR)
Agency code: 2021 SGR 00945

Uso inapropiado de opioides en pacientes con cáncer de pulmón

PI: Teresa Morán
Funding agency:  Sociedad Española de Oncología Médica

Diferencias en susceptibilidad genética a trastornos por uso de alcohol en función del sexo/género: implicaciones en tratamiento y pronóstico

PI: Javier Costas
Funding agency: Ministerio de Sanidad, Servicios Sociales e Igualdad, Plan Nacional Sobre Drogas
Agency code: 2021 SGR 00945

This project aims to identify genetic evidences of the prevalence of different pathways towards Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) in men and women and to detect interactions between genotype (by Polygenic Risk Scores) and sex/gender in predicting the severity of AUD, polydrug use and psychiatric comorbidity

CHECK OUT ALL THE Group’s projectS IN THEIR BLOG

Scientific publications

Novo-Veleiro I et al.; Wernicke-SEMI Group, Alcohol and Alcoholism Group, Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (SEMI). Alcoholic Liver Disease Among Patients with Wernicke Encephalopathy: A Multicenter Observational Study. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2022 Jan 1;230:109186. DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.109186. PMID: 34864357.

Hernández-Rubio A, Sanvisens A, Bolao F, Cachón-Suárez I, Garcia-Martín C, Short A, Bataller R, Muga R. Prevalence and associations of metabolic syndrome in patients with alcohol use disorder. Sci Rep. 2022 Feb 16;12(1):2625. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-06010-3. PMID: 35173187; PMCID: PMC8850419.

Alías-Ferri M, Pellegrini M, Marchei E, Pacifici R, Rotolo MC, Pichini S, Pérez-Mañá C, Papaseit E, Muga R, Fonseca F, Torrens M, Farré M. New Psychoactive Substances Consumption in Opioid-Use Disorder Patients. Biology (Basel). 2022 Apr 22;11(5):645. DOI: 10.3390/biology11050645. PMID: 35625373; PMCID: PMC9138226.

Alías-Ferri M, Pellegrini M, Marchei E, Pacifici R, Rotolo MC, Pichini S, Pérez-Mañá C, Papaseit E, Muga R, Fonseca F, Farré M, Torrens M. Synthetic cannabinoids use in a sample of opioid-use disorder patients. Front Psychiatry. 2022 Aug 3;13:956120. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.956120. PMID: 35990071; PMCID: PMC9381952.

Zuluaga P, Teniente-Serra A, Fuster D, Quirant-Sánchez B, Hernandez-Rubio A, Martínez-Cáceres E, Muga R. Increased Natural Killer Cells Are Associated with Alcohol Liver Fibrosis and with T Cell and Cytotoxic Subpopulations Change. J Clin Med. 2022 Jan 8;11(2):305. DOI: 10.3390/jcm11020305. PMID: 35054000; PMCID: PMC8780875.

Group publications

News

Financing for a Germans Trias i Pujol project in the third edition of the PERIS call

The Ministry of Health presented the grants for the 2018 and 2019 calls of the Strategic Plan for Innovation in Health (PERIS) on Tuesday. In this year's round the Germans Trias neurologist Natalia Pérez de la Ossa received a grant for the project for pre-hospitalization healthcare for patients with acute stroke. The doctor Daniel Fuster was also awarded a grant for the second edition, which he received at the same ceremony.

- Research

Overview on recommendations on alcohol consumption for patients with liver disease

Dr Daniel Fuster of the Addiction Unit of the Internal Medicine Service at the Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital and Research Institute (IGTP) and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has co-authored a landmark review article on alcohol use in patients with chronic liver disease with Dr Jeffrey H Samet of Boston Medical Center and University School of Medicine.  The article has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

+ News

Contact

Robert Muga Bustamante

(+34) 93 465 12 00 extn. 3582

rmuga.germanstrias(ELIMINAR)@gencat.cat