REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1660908
Natural Medicines for Treating Liver Fibrosis by Modulating Post-Translational Modifications
Provisionally accepted
- Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China
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Hepatic fibrosis is a multifactorial process driven by hepatic stellate cell (HSCs) activation, participation of Kupffer cells and infiltrating immune cells, and profibrotic cytokine signaling (notably TGF-β), culminating in excessive extracellular matrix (ECM) and collagen deposition. Post-translational modifications (PTMs)—covalent changes added after protein synthesis—govern protein stability, localization, interactions, and activity. Common PTMs include phosphorylation, acetylation, ubiquitination, glycosylation, nitration, and methylation; collectively, they modulate fibrogenic pathways across disease stages. Despite available therapies, clinically effective and well-tolerated antifibrotic options remain limited. Natural products, with their structural diversity, relative safety, and broad accessibility, offer promising leads for antifibrotic drug discovery. This review delineates the central roles of PTMs in hepatic fibrosis, synthesizes how specific PTMs drive disease initiation and progression, and evaluates natural products that target PTM-regulated nodes of fibrogenesis. We also propose strategies to accelerate development of PTM-informed antifibrotic therapeutics.
Keywords: hepatic fibrosis, post-translational modifications, Natural Products, Hepatic Stellate Cells, Extracellular Matrix, TGF-β, Antifibrotic therapy
Received: 07 Jul 2025; Accepted: 23 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Niu, Mou, Wang, Dong, Zijian and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Qun Niu, freepiaonapiao@163.com
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