Allicin Regulates Energy Homeostasis through Brown Adipose Tissue

Chuanhai Zhang; Xiaoyun He; Yao Sheng; Jia Xu; Cui Yang; Shujuan Zheng; Junyu Liu; Haoyu Li; Jianbing Ge; Minglan Yang; Baiqiang Zhai; Wentao Xu; Yunbo Luo; Kunlun Huang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2020.101113

Allicin Regulates Energy Homeostasis through Brown Adipose Tissue

iScience. 2020 May 22;23(5):101113. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.101113. Epub 2020 Apr 28.

Authors

Chuanhai Zhang¹, Xiaoyun He¹, Yao Sheng¹, Jia Xu¹, Cui Yang¹, Shujuan Zheng¹, Junyu Liu¹, Haoyu Li¹, Jianbing Ge¹, Minglan Yang¹, Baiqiang Zhai¹, Wentao Xu¹, Yunbo Luo², Kunlun Huang³

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Food Nutrition and Human Health, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China; Key Laboratory of Safety Assessment of Genetically Modified Organism (Food Safety), Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100083, China.
² Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Food Nutrition and Human Health, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China; Key Laboratory of Safety Assessment of Genetically Modified Organism (Food Safety), Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: lyb@cau.edu.cn.
³ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Food Nutrition and Human Health, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China; Key Laboratory of Safety Assessment of Genetically Modified Organism (Food Safety), Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: hkl009@163.com.

Abstract

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a promising potential therapeutic target for the treatment of obesity and related metabolic diseases. Allicin, a natural product in garlic, has multiple biological and pharmacological functions. However, the role of allicin in the regulation of metabolic organs, particularly BAT activation, has not been well studied. Here, we show that allicin imparts a significant effect by inhibiting body weight gain, decreasing adiposity, maintaining glucose homeostasis, improving insulin resistance, and ameliorating hepatic steatosis in obese mice. These observations strongly correlate with the activation of BAT. Notably, allicin plays a role in BAT activation, which may partly contribute to the Sirt1-PGC1α-Tfam pathway. In addition, allicin can significantly increase the succinylation levels of UCP1 in BAT by inhibiting sirt5, whereas excess allicin induces autophagy/mitophagy and mitochondrial dysfunction. Thus, our findings point to allicin as a promising therapeutic approach for the treatment of obesity and metabolic disorders.

Keywords: Biological Sciences; Human Physiology; Molecular Physiology.