CTSD and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: Functional annotation of CTSD and its co-expressed genes showed that lncRNA PSMG3-AS1 and MIRLET7BHG in NAFLD controlled the expression of CTSD through their target miRNAs, subsequently regulating the CAMKK2 pathway, extracellular matrix organization, autophagy, etc. (Figure 6A).