Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

a more and more common disease worldwide

shows an increasingprevalence and a trend toward younger population. Interventions targeting the pathogenesis of nonalcoholic fatty liverdisease are the focus of current research. One hundred and ninety therapeutic targets have been found until 2018

with 6

30 plus

and 20 plus targets in phase III

II

and I clinical trials

respectively. There are four main path-ways targeted for the treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.（1） Drugs targeting liver fat accumulation and theresulting metabolic stress: peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor agonists

drugs acting on the bile acid-farne-soid X-receptor axis

inhibitors of de novo fat synthesis

incretins

fibroblast growth factors

etc.（2） Medicine tar-geting oxidative stress

inflammation

cell damage

or cell apoptosis: antioxidants

medicine acting on the tumor ne-crosis factor alpha pathway

immunomodulators

etc.（3） Intestinal microecological regulators.（4） Antifibrotics. Al-though a huge investment has been poured into new drug research for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis

current clinicaltrials have yet found a satisfactory way to improve the patients’ histological indicators including inflammation andliver fibrosis.