A new study from the University of Barcelona suggests that two existing medications—pemafibrate and telmisartan—may help treat a common liver condition known as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).
This condition, which used to be called fatty liver disease, affects about one-third of adults worldwide. It happens when fat builds up in the liver, which can lead to serious liver problems and increase the risk of heart disease.
Currently, there are very few treatments available for MASLD. This makes the new findings exciting because the two drugs tested in the study are already approved for other uses.
Pemafibrate is used to lower cholesterol levels, and telmisartan is used to treat high blood pressure. In this study, researchers gave these drugs to rats and zebrafish with liver disease caused by a high-fat, high-sugar diet.
The results were promising. The combination of both drugs helped reduce the fat in the liver. In rats, even half doses of each drug together worked just as well as full doses of one drug alone.
This could mean fewer side effects while still getting good results. The two drugs work in different ways, so using them together could be more powerful than using just one.
The drugs also appeared to help with other health issues. Since MASLD is closely tied to heart disease, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol with these drugs could reduce the overall risk of serious health problems.
One interesting finding was how telmisartan worked. Scientists discovered that a protein called PCK1, which helps control how the liver uses fat and sugar, was restored to healthy levels after treatment.
This shift moved the liver’s energy use away from storing fat and toward making glucose, without causing high blood sugar levels. That’s good news because it means the liver fat was reduced without increasing the risk of diabetes.
The study used zebrafish as well as rats. While not exactly like humans, zebrafish have similar liver and fat metabolism. They are also cheaper and faster to study, which helps researchers get early results before moving to larger animals or human trials.
The idea of “drug repurposing”—using old drugs for new purposes—is important in this research. Many new drugs for liver disease have failed in clinical trials, often due to safety concerns.
Using medications that are already approved and known to be safe is a smarter and more affordable way to find new treatments, especially for diseases that don’t cause symptoms in the early stages.
While the findings are promising, the researchers caution that the study was done in animals. More research is needed before these drugs can be used for treating humans with MASLD. The next steps will include testing the drugs in more advanced stages of the disease and looking at their effects on both liver and heart disease in combined models.
This study opens the door to the possibility of treating two serious conditions—fatty liver disease and cardiovascular disease—at the same time using safe, well-known medications.
If you care about liver health, please read studies that refined fiber is link to liver cancer, and the best and worst foods for liver health.
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The study is published in Pharmacological Research.
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