A pressing need exists for drugs to treat metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD, previously referred to as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease). Now, three phase II clinical trials have reported encouraging findings on three different hormone receptor agonist drugs for MASLD.

Over the past few years, great progress has been made in treating type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), obesity and related complications with incretin hormone-based therapeutics. These pharmacological therapies, which include agonist drugs targeting glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP1R), or GLP1R and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide receptor (GIPR), induce weight loss by reducing appetite and slowing gastric emptying. Early trials also indicated that these drugs might be effective in lowering liver fat in patients with MASLD. The addition of glucagon receptor agonism to incretin agonist drugs also seemingly increased liver fat reduction in preclinical studies and early clinical trials in patients with MASLD.

迫切需要治疗代谢功能障碍相关的脂肪肝病（MASLD，以前称为非酒精性脂肪肝病）的药物。现在，三项 II 期临床试验报告了三种不同的激素受体激动剂药物治疗 MASLD 的令人鼓舞的结果。

在过去的几年中，基于肠促胰岛素激素的疗法在治疗 2 型糖尿病 (T2DM)、肥胖症及相关并发症方面取得了巨大进展。这些药物疗法包括针对胰高血糖素样肽 1 受体 (GLP1R) 或 GLP1R 和葡萄糖依赖性促胰岛素多肽受体 (GIPR) 的激动剂药物，通过降低食欲和减慢胃排空来诱导体重减轻。早期试验还表明，这些药物可能能有效降低 MASLD 患者的肝脏脂肪。在 MASLD 患者的临床前研究和早期临床试验中，在肠促胰岛素激动剂药物中添加胰高血糖素受体激动剂似乎也能增加肝脏脂肪的减少。