2026/04/02 by Young Do Koo, Romilia Tatiana Castillo, Asha Sukumaran Nair +26 · 1 voice
Medicine · #Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment #Adipokines, Inflammation, and Metabolic Diseases #Cholesterol and Lipid Metabolism
paper · pdf · doi:10.1172/jci191101
openalex publication_date 2026/04/02 · openalex created_date 2026/04/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) are leading causes of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Defects in autophagy contribute to the development of MASLD; however, the role of Unc-51-like autophagy-activating kinase 1 (ULK1) in the pathophysiology of MASLD remains unclear. Herein, we show that ULK1, a serine/threonine kinase and core autophagy protein, is significantly repressed in human MASH livers, and that hepatocyte-specific loss of ULK1 promotes, unexpectedly, hepatic steatosis and progression to liver fibrosis, without affecting basal autophagy flux. Phospho-proteomics identified the transcriptional coactivator NCOA3 as a downstream phospho-target of ULK1. Mechanistically, ULK1 phosphorylates NCOA3 to repress its transcriptional activity and restrain the CREB/CBP-mediated de novo lipogenic program. Accordingly, a phosphorylation-deficient NCOA3 mutant drives CREB/CBP-mediated lipogenesis, whereas genetic or pharmacological NCOA3 inhibition prevents steatosis, hepatic inflammation, and profibrotic signaling. Hence, ULK1-mediated NCOA3 phosphorylation is a fundamental and druggable checkpoint against the entire MASLD spectrum.