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Although several available medications have favorable effects on liver histology in selected patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), no drugs are U.S. FDA-approved for this purpose. Researchers are examining novel pharmacological approaches, two of which were reported recently.
Agonists of the thyroid hormone receptor-beta (THR-β) in the liver improve hepatic histology in NASH. In a manufacturer-sponsored, phase 3 trial, researchers randomized nearly 1000 patients with biopsy-proven NASH (most with fibrosis stage 2 or 3) to receive the THR-β agonist resmetirom or placebo. On repeat biopsy at 1 year, NASH had resolved (with no worsening of fibrosis) in 28% of resmetirom recipients and in…