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Review
. 2022 Nov 2:13:973366.
doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.973366. eCollection 2022.

Diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Yajie Fu  1 , Yanzhi Zhou  1 , Linhu Shen  1 , Xuewen Li  1 , Haorui Zhang  1 , Yeqi Cui  1 , Ke Zhang  1 , Weiguo Li  1 , Wei-Dong Chen  1   2 , Shizhen Zhao  1 , Yunfu Li  1 , Wenling Ye  1
Affiliations
Review

Diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Yajie Fu et al. Front Pharmacol. .

Abstract

The global incidence rate of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is approximately 25%. With the global increase in obesity and its associated metabolic syndromes, NAFLD has become an important cause of chronic liver disease in many countries. Despite recent advances in pathogenesis, diagnosis, and therapeutics, there are still challenges in its treatment. In this review, we briefly describe diagnostic methods, therapeutic targets, and drugs related to NAFLD. In particular, we focus on evaluating carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, lipotoxicity, cell death, inflammation, and fibrosis as potential therapeutic targets for NAFLD. We also summarized the clinical research progress in terms of drug development and combination therapy, thereby providing references for NAFLD drug development.

Keywords: NAFLD; NASH; diagnostic; drug development; therapeutic strategies.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The pathophysiology and therapeutic strategies of NAFLD. The therapeutic targets of NAFLD can be divided into four categories: carbohydrate and lipid metabolism-based, lipid toxicity and cell death-based, inflammation-based, and extracellular matrix deposition anti-fibrosis-based targets.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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