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RecruitingNCT05018481Updated Sep 24, 2026

HA35 Moderate Alcoholic Hepatitis (AH) Study

An Early Phase 1 interventional study of Sodium Hyaluronate and Placebo in Alcoholic Hepatitis, sponsored by The Cleveland Clinic. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 21 Years to 65 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-24.

Sponsored by The Cleveland Clinic · Early Phase 1, Interventional, and Basic science

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Sep 2022; still recruiting 4 years 2 months later.
Phase
Early Phase 1
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
54
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
21 Years to 65 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Eligible participants will be asked to take a placebo/treatment capsule for 90 days and participate in two in-person study visits, one at the start of the 90 days and the second at the completion of study supplement administration. Both visits will include a physical exam, clinical labs, body composition measurements, muscle strength tests, questionnaires, and urine and stool collections. Additionally, a sugar cocktail will be consumed to measure gut permeability and a muscle biopsy will be collected. The day after the visits, you will need to return to drop off the 24-hour urine collection.

Two phone visits will be performed in between the in-person visits at day 30 and 60 where you will be asked a series of questionnaires as well as asked about study supplement compliance.

Read the detailed description

Written informed consent will be obtained during the baseline visit (day 1). Patients will given a physical exam and a blood test will be obtained if not in their medical chart. The subjects who meet the criteria after the screening visit will have the following procedures: A. Body composition will be quantified by whole-body dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), Bioelectric Impedance Analysis (BIA), chair stands, 3 position balance and hand grip strength by dynamometry. B. Muscle biopsy from the lateral portion of vastus lateralis, about 20 cm above knee, C. Questionnaires, D. Blood collection, E. Collection of stool samples, F. Sugar cocktail administration, and G. Urine collection (24 hour)

After baseline measures have been completed, patients will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to either standard of care (SOC) + HA35 or SOC + placebo (140 mg/d) for a total of 3 months post enrollment.

The subjects will be recalled after 3 months. The visit and the procedures conducted on day 90 will be similar to the baseline study visit.

02

Conditions studied

  • Alcoholic Hepatitis

Browse trials for

03

In context

Hepatitis, Alcoholic

113 studies on the registry are indexed under Hepatitis, Alcoholic; 24 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 54 is close to the median of 60 across 80 interventional studies indexed under Hepatitis, Alcoholic.

Browse Hepatitis, Alcoholic studies →

Lead sponsor

The Cleveland Clinic is the lead sponsor of 831 studies on the registry; 119 are open to participants now.

Of its 90 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 73 (81%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
21 Years to 65 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Clinical diagnosis of alcoholic hepatitis defined as:
  • Regular consumption of alcohol with an intake of >60 g daily or >420 g weekly on average for men and >40 g daily or >280 g weekly on average for women for 6 months or more

AND

  • MELD \<21
  • Serum total >3 mg/dL
  • >50 IU/I; AST:ALT ratio >1.5; Both AST and ALT \<400 IU/I

OR Histologic evidence of AH.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Pregnant or breastfeeding women
  • Patients with gastrointestinal bleeding within 2 weeks
  • Active infection (positive blood or ascitic fluid culture)
  • Overt encephalopathy
  • Renal failure and/or on dialysis
  • Medications that alter muscle protein metabolism
  • Myopathies
  • Other end-stage organ diseases
  • Solid organ or hematopoietic transplantation
  • Active alcohol withdrawal or ongoing participation in a Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment (CIWA) protocol
  • History of recent upper gastrointestinal resection within past 6 months
  • Acute or chronic liver disease due to other active causes, in addition to alcoholic liver disease
  • Inability to provide consent
  • Creatinine >2mg/dL
  • \<60,000k/ul
  • >1.7
  • Presence of pedal edema
  • Use of anti-platelet/anticoagulation drugs or medications that interfere with blood clotting
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(5)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Bilirubin

A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.

Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.

ALT and AST (liver enzymes)

Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.

Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

Platelets

Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.

INR, PT and aPTT (clotting tests)

Blood tests of how long blood takes to clot. The INR is the prothrombin time (PT) put on a common scale; about 1 is usual for someone not taking a blood thinner.

Criteria often make an exception for people on a blood thinner such as warfarin, whose INR is raised on purpose.

05

Study design

Phase
Early Phase 1
Primary purpose
Basic science
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Triple (Participant, Care provider, Investigator)
Enrollment
54 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Placebo comparator
    HA35 Placebo Group

    24 study participants will receive the standard of care treatment for AH and a 90-day supply of a placebo to take once a day with breakfast.

    Drug: Placebo

  • Active comparator
    HA35 Treatment Group

    24 study participants will receive the standard of care treatment for AH and a 90-day supply of a HA35 to take once a day with breakfast.

    Drug: Sodium Hyaluronate

Interventions

  • Sodium hyaluronate of molecular weight 35kDa will be given in capsule form to study participants

    Also known as: HA35

  • DrugPlacebo

    A placebo will be given in capsule form to study participants

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Compare percent change of skeletal muscle mass

    Time frame: Baseline to 90 days

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Welch N, Kannan P, Davuluri G, Bellar A, Attaway AH, Mishra S, Cunningham JA, Kumar A, Musich R, Ertugral EG, Agrawal V, Hsu IL, Harford TJ, Weisleder NL, Vachharajani VT, Kothapalli CR, de la Motte CA, Nagy LE, Dasarathy S. Hyaluronan 35 prevents endotoxin-mediated dysregulated skeletal muscle proteostasis during ethanol exposure. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2026 Feb 1;330(2):E212-E232. doi: 10.1152/ajpendo.00283.2025. Epub 2026 Jan 6. PubMed 41494657 ↗
09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 24, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05018481
Responsible party
Srinivasan Dasarathy (Staff Physician, The Cleveland Clinic) — Principal investigator
First posted
Aug 24, 2021
Start date
Sep 1, 2022
Primary completion
Oct 1, 2028 (estimated)
Completion
Oct 1, 2028 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 24, 2026

Study contacts

Srinivasan Dasarathy, MD
Contact
dasaras@ccf.org
216-318-7010
Annette Bellar
Contact
bellara@ccf.org

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
Yes
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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