Table 1.

Anti-MAFLD drugs with effects on the mTOR-autophagy-ER stress pathway.

Drugs	Effects on mTOR-autophagy-ER stress	Animal models	Effects on MAFLD	References
Rapamycin	Inhibit mTOR Enhance autophagy Inhibit ER stress	HFru fed mice Fructose fed Zebrafish	Reduce inflammation and improve insulin signaling transduction Reduce hepatosteatosis	[12] [16]
Caffeine	Inhibit mTOR Enhance autophagy	High-fat (HF) fed mice	Ameliorate HF-induced hepatosteatosis	[52] [53]
Metformin	Enhance autophagy Inhibit mTOR Inhibit ER stress	HF fed mice HFru fed mice	Reduce hepatic insulin resistance Ameliorate HF-induced hepatosteatosis Reduce inflammation and fibrosis	[54] [60]
Ezetimibe Simvastatin	Inhibit ER stress	High-fat cholesterol (HFC) fed zebrafish	Ameliorate HFC-induced hepatosteatosis	[56]
Matrine	Down-regulate mTOR Inhibit ER stress Up-regulate HSP72	HFru fed mice Methionine and choline deficiency (MCD) fed mice	Abolish HFru-induced hepatosteatosis (reduce TG content) MCD-induced hepatic injury (reduced plasma ALT and AST levels) Suppress MCD-induced hepatic inflammation (reduced TNFα, CD68, MCP-1, and NLRP3 levels) and fibrosis (reduced collagen 1, TGFβ, Smad3, and Sirius red staining)	[12] [29] [55]
Resveratrol	Enhance autophagy Inhibit ER stress	Egg yolk powder fed zebrafish HFru fed mice	Relieve destroyed hepatic structure (fatty infiltration, hepatocyte ballooning, and irregular arrangement and rupture of hepatocyte) in overfed zebrafish Reduce inflammation and improve insulin signaling transduction	[12] [46]

TG triglyceride, ALT alanine aminotransferase, AST aspartate aminotransferase, CD68 cluster of differentiation 68, MCP-1 monocyte chemotactic protein-1, NLRP3 NLR family pyrin domain containing 3, TGFβ transforming growth factor-β.