Current and Emerging Therapies for Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Abstract

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is the most common cause of chronic liver disease in the developed world and commonly associated with metabolic comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and obesity. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis is an aggressive form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, associated with an increased risk of liver and non-liver-related mortality. Currently there are no approved therapies for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease/non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and standard-of-care lifestyle advice is rarely effective. This has spurned intense drug development efforts and several agents are in clinical trials to address this major gap in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Drug development efforts have focused on pathogenic mechanisms including pathways involving lipid metabolism, inflammation, and fibrosis. This review presents the overview of the trials and agents in the pipeline of emerging therapies for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease/non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.