Efficacy of elafibranor in patients with liver abnormalities especially non-alcoholic steatohepatitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Dyslipidemia is a very common medical disorder affecting nearly 33.5% of US adults over 20 years of age. It represents the major risk factor for non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFLD) and cardiovascular diseases, which is the most common cause of death worldwide. Elafibranor is a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) alpha and delta dual agonist. A novel dual peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha/delta (PPAR-alpha/delta), elafibranor, the agonist is an emerging therapy with promising hepatoprotective results. Objectives To estimate the efficacy of elafibranor in patients with liver abnormalities especially non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Methods We searched the following databases: PubMed, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library for relevant clinical trials assessing the use of silymarin in patients with NAFLD. Risk of bias assessment was performed using Cochrane's risk of bias tool. We included the following outcomes: alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), HOMA-IR, total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C), and LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C). Results We included four clinical trials. We found that elafibranor significantly reduced the levels of ALT {MD = - 4.60 [- 8.17, - 1.04], (P = 0.01)}, GGT {MD = - 16.57 [- 26.59, - 6.56], (P < 0.01)}, TC {MD = - 0.37 [- 0.66, - 0.08], (P = 0.01)}, TG {MD = - 0.37 [- 0.51, - 0.24], (P < 0.01)}, ALP {(MD = - 14.45 [- 18.99, - 9.91], (P < 0.01)}, and LDL {MD = - 0.20 [- 0.33, - 0.07], (P = 0.003)}. There was no significant difference regarding HOMA-IR {MD = - 0.32 [- 0.88, 0.24], (P = 0.26) and AST (P = 0.53). Conclusion PPAR-alpha/delta dual agonist, elafibranor, is a promising drug that improves most metabolic parameters in dyslipidemic patients.