LEP and hepatocellular carcinoma: In particular, in the field of liver protection, AS-IV shows therapeutic potential through various mechanisms such as inhibition of inflammatory responses, reduction of oxidative stress, amelioration of insulin and leptin resistance, modulation of gut microbiota, suppression of HCC cell proliferation and induction of tumour cell apoptosis (Li L. et al., 2018; Li Y. et al., 2018; Su et al., 2020; Zhou et al., 2021; Zhai et al., 2022).