NUB1L has stronger binding affinity toward FAT10 compared to NEDD8 which eventually attenuates the neddylation (covalently conjugating NEDD8 to specific protein), where the neddylation is involved with pathology of NAFLD and NASH (Sen et al., 2015; Yao et al., 2020). Here, NEDD8 is linked to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease.