A novel natural compound crocin II from saffron directly targets ANGPTL8, a key driver of metabolic dysfunction‑associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), and promotes its degradation via the autophagosome‑lysosome pathway. This PROTAC‑like mechanism suppresses lipogenesis, restores lipid metabolism, reverses hepatic steatosis, insulin resistance, and hyperlipidemia in preclinical models, with excellent organ safety, providing a safe, translatable natural strategy for MASLD therapy.

A new study reveals cathepsin S (CTSS) as a key immune checkpoint driving cholestatic liver injury by skewing invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells toward pathogenic iNKT17 polarization. The natural product celastrol directly binds and inhibits CTSS, restores autophagy/mitophagy in iNKT cells, reprograms the liver immune microenvironment toward protective iNKT1 polarization, alleviates cholestasis, and halts liver fibrosis, establishing a safe, translatable immune‑targeting strategy for cholestatic liver diseases.

Salk Institute researchers investigated the impacts of entinostat, a drug that targets HDAC proteins, and found it inactivates DNA damage repair genes in pancreatic cancer cells. Their discovery led to new treatment strategies that pair entinostat with DNA-damaging therapies, as well as the development of a nanoparticle-based delivery approach that limits toxicity by selectively delivering entinostat to tumors. The findings could improve treatment outcomes and expand therapeutic options for pancreatic cancer, and similar strategies could be applied for treating other cancer types that resist DNA-damaging therapies.

Artificial light spilling into coastal waters from cities, ports, roads, and hotels is disrupting sleep in coral reef fish and is associated with changes in markers linked to brain health, according to a new study from Bar-Ilan University.