Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, commonly known as NASH, is a type of liver disease that affects about 6% of adults in the U.S. It’s part of a broader category of liver problems known as NAFLD (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease).
People with NASH don’t just have fat in their liver; they also have inflammation and damage that can lead to life-threatening conditions like cirrhosis or liver cancer.
And here’s the kicker: there are no FDA-approved medications to treat it. That’s why a new study led by researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine is creating quite a buzz.
The Breakthrough: A Drug That Mimics a Body Hormone
The research team, led by Dr. Rohit Loomba, focused on a drug called pegozafermin. This drug acts like a hormone naturally made by our bodies, called fibroblast growth factor 21 (or FGF21 for short).
FGF21 has various helpful roles—it helps control how our body uses energy, lowers blood sugar and insulin levels, and even helps reduce weight and liver fat.
The study found that pegozafermin not only reduced scarring in the liver but also improved inflammation and liver injury.
Dr. Loomba said the drug led to “significant improvements across multiple non-invasive markers,” which are ways doctors can gauge how well the liver is functioning without having to resort to more intrusive tests.
Study Highlights and Next Steps
The research involved 222 participants who had NASH. They were given either pegozafermin or a placebo for 24 weeks.
About 27% of those who took the drug at a higher dose showed a marked improvement in their liver scarring, compared to just 7% in the placebo group. The main side effect reported was gastrointestinal issues, including nausea.
Given the lack of approved medications to treat NASH, this is big news. The next step, according to Dr. Loomba, will be to conduct larger, more diverse trials to confirm these promising results and ensure the drug’s safety over a longer period.
If everything goes well, pegozafermin could become a go-to treatment for the millions affected by NASH, not just in the U.S. but around the world.
In summary, this breakthrough gives hope to those who are battling NASH, a disease that can severely impact quality of life and lead to more serious complications.
For a disease that often silently affects those who are overweight or have type 2 diabetes, an effective treatment could be a game-changer.
If you care about liver health, please read studies about simple habit that could give you a healthy liver, and common diabetes drug that may reverse liver inflammation.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about simple blood test that could detect your risk of fatty liver disease, and results showing this green diet may strongly lower non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
The research findings can be found in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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