Nardosinone relieves metabolic-associated fatty liver disease and promotes energy metabolism through targeting CYP2D6.

BACKGROUND: Nardosinone, a major extract of Rhizoma nardostachyos, plays a vital role in sedation, neural stem cell proliferation, and protection of the heart muscle. However, the huge potential of nardosinone in regulating lipid metabolism and gut microbiota has not been reported, and its potential mechanism has not been studied. PURPOSE: To explore the regulation of nardosinone on liver lipid metabolism and gut microbiota. METHODS: In this study, the role of nardosinone in lipid metabolism was investigated in vitro and in vivo by adding it to mouse feed and HepG2 cell culture medium. And 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used to explore its regulatory effect on gut microbiota. RESULTS: Results showed that nardosinone could improve HFD-induced liver injury and abnormal lipid metabolism by promoting mitochondrial energy metabolism in hepatocytes, alleviating oxidative stress damage, and regulating the composition of the gut microbiota. Mechanistically, combined with network pharmacology and reverse docking analysis, it was predicted that CYP2D6 was the target of nardosinone, and the binding was verified by cellular thermal shift assay (CETSA). CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights a novel mechanism function of nardosinone in regulating lipid metabolism and gut microbiota. It also predicts and validates CYP2D6 as a previously unknown regulatory target, which provides new possibilities for the application of nardosinone and the treatment of metabolic-associated fatty liver disease.

Arbutin alleviates fatty liver by inhibiting ferroptosis via FTO/SLC7A11 pathway.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a potentially serious disease that affects 30 % of the global population and poses a significant risk to human health. However, to date, no safe, effective and appropriate treatment modalities are available. In recent years, ferroptosis has emerged as a significant mode of cell death and has been found to play a key regulatory role in the development of NAFLD. In this study, we found that arbutin (ARB), a natural antioxidant derived from Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (L.), inhibits the onset of ferroptosis and ameliorates high-fat diet-induced NAFLD in vivo and in vitro. Using reverse docking, we identified the demethylase fat mass and obesity-related protein (FTO) as a potential target of ARB. Subsequent mechanistic studies revealed that ARB plays a role in controlling methylation of the SLC7A11 gene through inhibition of FTO. In addition, we demonstrated that SLC7A11 could alleviate the development of NAFLD in vivo and in vitro. Our findings identify the FTO/SLC7A11 axis as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of NAFLD. Specifically, we show that ARB alleviates NAFLD by acting on the FTO/SLC7A11 pathway to inhibit ferroptosis.

BATF relieves hepatic steatosis by inhibiting PD1 and promoting energy metabolism.

The rising prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become a global health threat that needs to be addressed urgently. Basic leucine zipper ATF-like transcription factor (BATF) is commonly thought to be involved in immunity, but its effect on lipid metabolism is not clear. Here, we investigated the function of BATF in hepatic lipid metabolism. BATF alleviated high-fat diet (HFD)-induced hepatic steatosis and inhibited elevated programmed cell death protein (PD)1 expression induced by HFD. A mechanistic study confirmed that BATF regulated fat accumulation by inhibiting PD1 expression and promoting energy metabolism. PD1 antibodies alleviated hepatic lipid deposition. In conclusion, we identified the regulatory role of BATF in hepatic lipid metabolism and that PD1 is a target for alleviation of NAFLD. This study provides new insights into the relationship between BATF, PD1, and NAFLD.

The Roles of Natural Alkaloids and Polyphenols in Lipid Metabolism: Therapeutic Implications and Potential Targets in Metabolic Diseases.

The prevalence of obesity and its associated diseases has increased dramatically, and they are major threats to human health worldwide. A variety of approaches, such as physical training and drug therapy, can be used to reduce weight and reverse associated diseases; however, the efficacy and the prognosis are often unsatisfactory. It has been reported that natural food-based small molecules can prevent obesity and its associated diseases. Among them, alkaloids and polyphenols have been demonstrated to regulate lipid metabolism by enhancing energy metabolism, promoting lipid phagocytosis, inhibiting adipocyte proliferation and differentiation, and enhancing the intestinal microbial community to alleviate obesity. This review summarizes the regulatory mechanisms and metabolic pathways of these natural small molecules and reveals that the binding targets of most of these molecules are still undefined, which limits the study of their regulatory mechanisms and prevents their further application. In this review, we describe the use of Discovery Studio for the reverse docking of related small molecules and provide new insights for target protein prediction, scaffold hopping, and mechanistic studies in the future. These studies will provide a theoretical basis for the modernization of anti-obesity drugs and promote the discovery of novel drugs.

Genome-Wide Analysis of Long Non-coding RNAs Involved in Nodule Senescence in Medicago truncatula.

Plant long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are widely accepted to play crucial roles during diverse biological processes. In recent years, thousands of lncRNAs related to the establishment of symbiosis, root nodule organogenesis and nodule development have been identified in legumes. However, lncRNAs involved in nodule senescence have not been reported. In this study, senescence-related lncRNAs were investigated in Medicago truncatula nodules by high-throughput strand-specific RNA-seq. A total of 4576 lncRNAs and 126 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DElncRNAs) were identified. We found that more than 60% lncRNAs were associated with transposable elements, especially TIR/Mutator and Helitron DNA transposons families. In addition, 49 DElncRNAs were predicted to be the targets of micro RNAs. Functional analysis showed that the largest sub-set of differently expressed target genes of DElncRNAs were associated with the membrane component. Of these, nearly half genes were related to material transport, suggesting that an important function of DElncRNAs during nodule senescence is the regulation of substance transport across membranes. Our findings will be helpful for understanding the functions of lncRNAs in nodule senescence and provide candidate lncRNAs for further research.

Ruthenium 360 and mitoxantrone inhibit mitochondrial calcium uniporter channel to prevent liver steatosis induced by high-fat diet.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) affects over 25% of the general population and lacks an effective treatment. Recent evidence implicates disrupted mitochondrial calcium homeostasis in the pathogenesis of hepatic steatosis. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: In this study, mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) was inhibited through classical genetic approaches, viral vectors or small molecule inhibitors in vivo to study its role in hepatic steatosis induced by high-fat diet (HFD). In vitro, MCU was overexpressed or inhibited to change mitochondrial calcium homeostasis, endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondrial linker was adopted to increase mitochondria-associated membranes (MAMs) and MICU1-EF hand mutant was used to decrease the sensitivity of mitochondrial calcium uptake 1 (MICU1) to calcium and block MCU channel. KEY RESULTS: Here, we found that inhibition of liver MCU by AAV virus and classical genetic approaches can prevent HFD-induced liver steatosis. MCU regulates mitochondrial calcium homeostasis and affects lipid accumulation in liver cells. In addition, a HFD in mice enlarged the MAM. The high-calcium environment produced by MAM invalidated the function of MICU1 and led to persistent open of MCU channels. Therefore, it caused mitochondrial calcium overload and liver fat deposition. Inhibition of MAM and MCU alleviated HFD-induced hepatic steatosis. MCU inhibitors (Ru360 and mitoxantrone) can block MCU channels and reduce mitochondrial calcium levels. Intraperitoneal injection of MCU inhibitors (0.01-µM·kg-1 bodyweight) can alleviate HFD-induced hepatic steatosis. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: These findings provide molecular insights into the way HFD disrupts mitochondrial calcium homeostasis and identify MCU as a promising drug target for the treatment of hepatic steatosis.

Translatomics Probes Into the Role of Lycopene on Improving Hepatic Steatosis Induced by High-Fat Diet.

Liver is an important organ for fat metabolism. Excessive intake of a high-fat/energy diet is a major cause of hepatic steatosis and its complications such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. Supplementation with lycopene, a natural compound, is effective in lowering triglyceride levels in the liver, although the underlying mechanism at the translational level is unclear. In this study, mice were fed a high-fat diet (HFD) to induce hepatic steatosis and treated with or without lycopene. Translation omics and transcriptome sequencing were performed on the liver to explore the regulatory mechanism of lycopene in liver steatosis induced by HFD, and identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). We identified 1,358 DEGs at the translational level. Through transcriptomics and translatomics joint analysis, we narrowed the range of functional genes to 112 DEGs and found that lycopene may affect lipid metabolism by regulating the expression of LPIN1 at the transcriptional and translational levels. This study provides a powerful tool for translatome and transcriptome integration and a new strategy for the screening of candidate genes.

Translatome analysis reveals the regulatory role of betaine in high fat diet (HFD)-induced hepatic steatosis.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common disease with a multitude of complications. Increasing evidence shows that the dietary supplement with betaine, a natural chemical molecule, can effectively reduce the fat accumulation in the liver. Translational regulation is considered to play a vital role in gene expression, but whether betaine functions through the regulation of gene translational level is still unclear. To this end, RNC-seq (mRNAs bound to ribosome-nascent chain complex sequencing) and RNA-seq co-analyses were performed to identify betaine target genes by using the liver samples from high-fat diet adding betaine treated and high-fat diet treated mice. The results showed that betaine does play a lipid-lowering role by regulating the expression of gene translation levels; some NAFLD- and lipid metabolism-associated genes were differentially expressed at translational level, for example. And the translation ratio (TR) of gene significantly increased after betaine treatment. Finally, we identified a novel function gene, Gpc1, which may mediate the lipid-lowering effect of betaine in the liver. To sum up, this study depicted the molecular portrait of mice liver with or without betaine treatment from the angel of translatome and transcriptome, giving insights into the molecular mechanism of betaine-mediated lipid-lowering effect and also providing new clues for understanding and prevention of NAFLD.

Calcium supplementation relieves high-fat diet-induced liver steatosis by reducing energy metabolism and promoting lipolysis.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a chronic disease affecting the health of many people worldwide. Previous studies have shown that dietary calcium supplementation may alleviate NAFLD, but the underlying mechanism is not clear. In this study investigating the effect of calcium on hepatic lipid metabolism, 8-week-old male C57BL/6J mice were divided into four groups (n = 6): (1) mice given a normal chow containing 0.5% calcium (CN0.5), (2) mice given a normal chow containing 1.2% calcium (CN1.2), (3) mice given a high-fat diet (HFD) containing 0.5% calcium (HFD0.5), and (4) mice fed a HFD containing 1.2% calcium (HFD1.2). To understand the underlying mechanism, cells were treated with oleic acid and palmitic acid to mimic the HFD conditions in vitro. The results showed that calcium alleviated the increase in triglyceride accumulation induced by oleic acid and/or palmitic acid in HepG2, AML12, and primary hepatocyte cells. Our data demonstrated that calcium supplementation alleviated HFD-induced hepatic steatosis through increased liver lipase activity, proving calcium is involved in the regulation of hepatic lipid metabolism. Moreover, calcium also increased the level of glycogen in the liver, and at the same time had the effect of reducing glycolysis and promoting glucose absorption. Calcium addition increased calcium levels in the mitochondria and cytoplasm. Taken together, we concluded that calcium supplementation could relieve HFD-induced hepatic steatosis by changing energy metabolism and lipase activity.

Comprehensive analysis of the translatome reveals the relationship between the translational and transcriptional control in high fat diet-induced liver steatosis.

Translational regulation plays a critical role in gene expression. However, there are few genome-wide studies on translational regulation in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is a severe non-communicable epidemic worldwide. In this study, we performed RNC-mRNA (mRNAs bound to ribosome-nascent chain complex) sequencing and mRNA sequencing to probe the translation status of high-fat-diet (HFD) induced mouse fatty liver. Generally, in the HFD group compared to the control group, changes of translation ratios and changes in mRNA abundance had a negative correlation. The relative abundance of RNC-mRNAs and mRNAs were positively correlated, yet the former changed more slowly than the latter. However, the rate of change became more balanced when it came to the livers of mice that were fed the HFD plus lycopene, an antioxidant. This indicated relatively independent roles of translational modulation and transcriptional regulation. Furthermore, many genes were differentially regulated at the transcriptional or translational levels, suggesting a new screening strategy for functional genes. In conclusion, our analysis revealed the different and correlated role of translational control with transcriptional regulation in the HFD-induced mouse fatty liver relative to the control, which indicates critical roles of translational control for liver steatosis; thus, adding a new dimension towards a better understanding and improvement of treatment for NAFLD.

Comprehensive analysis of differences of N6-methyladenosine RNA methylomes between high-fat-fed and normal mouse livers.

Aim: To assess the m6A methylome in mouse fatty liver induced by a high-fat diet (HFD). Materials & methods: MeRIP-seq was performed to identify differences in the m6A methylomes between the normal liver and fatty liver induced by an HFD. Results: As compared with the control group, the upmethylated coding genes upon feeding an HFD were primarily enriched in processes associated with lipid metabolism, while genes with downmethylation were enriched in processes associated with metabolism and translation. Furthermore, many RNA-binding proteins that potentially bind to differentially methylated m6A sites were mainly annotated in processes of RNA splicing. Conclusion: These findings suggest that differential m6A methylation may act on functional genes through RNA-binding proteins to regulate the metabolism of lipids in fatty liver disease.

Proteomic Analyses of Cysteine Redox in High-Fat-Fed and Fasted Mouse Livers: Implications for Liver Metabolic Homeostasis.

Intensive oxidative stress occurs during high-fat-diet-induced hepatic fat deposition, suggesting a critical role for redox signaling in liver metabolism. Intriguingly, evidence shows that fasting could also result in redox-profile changes largely through reduced oxidant or increased antioxidant levels. However, a comprehensive landscape of redox-modified hepatic substrates is lacking, thereby hindering our understanding of liver metabolic homeostasis. We employed a proteomic approach combining iodoacetyl tandem mass tag and nanoliquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry to quantitatively probe the effects of high-fat feeding and fasting on in vivo redox-based cysteine modifications. Compared with control groups, ∼60% of cysteine residues exhibited downregulated oxidation ratios by fasting, whereas ∼94% of these ratios were upregulated by high-fat feeding. Importantly, in fasted livers, proteins exhibiting diminished cysteine oxidation were annotated in pathways associated with fatty acid metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism, insulin, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors, and oxidative respiratory chain signaling, suggesting that fasting-induced redox changes targeted major metabolic pathways and consequently resulted in hepatic lipid accumulation.