Focus on emerging drugs for the treatment of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Table 1 Main treatments and emerging drugs for patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Lifestyle intervention	Anti-obesity drugs	Glucose control	Lipid-lowering drugs	Cytoprotectiveagents	Other drugs	Emerging drugs and new horizons
Diet	Orlistat	Insulin-sensitizing agents	Statins, fibrate and ezetimibe	Ursodeoxycholic acid	Probiotics	Inhibitors of caspases
Weight loss	Cannabinoid agonists	New anti-diabetic drugs	Probucol	Anti-oxidants	Anti-TNF-α monoclonal antibodies	Adenosine system drugs
Physical exercise		Renal glucose transporters blockers		Herbal products	Anti-hypertensive drugs	PPAR agonists
Surgery (not treated)					Pentoxifylline	Peripheral cannabinoid agonists
					Iron depletion	Farnesoid X receptor agonists
						Thyroid hormone analogues

TNF: Tumor necrosis factor; PPAR: Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors.

Table 2 Characteristics of the included studies within the meta-analysis of Ma et al[88]

Ref.	Sample size	Randomization	Blinding	Diagnostic method	Intervention	Duration	Follow-up
Aller et al[87]	28 (14/14)	Table of numbers	Double-blind	Histological	Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus vs placebo	3 mo	Yes
Vajro et al[90]	20 (10/10)	Yes	Double-blind	Radiological	Lactobacillus GG vs placebo	8 wk	Yes
Malaguarnera et al[91]	66 (34/32)	Computer generated	Double-blind	Histological	Bifidobacteriumlongum + Fos vs placebo	24 wk	Yes
Wong et al[92]	20 (10/10)	Computer generated	Double-blind	Histological	Lepicol probiotic and prebiotic formula vs nothing	6 mo	Yes