2. Academic Validation
  3. Asperuloside Enhances Taste Perception and Prevents Weight Gain in High-Fat Fed Mice

Asperuloside Enhances Taste Perception and Prevents Weight Gain in High-Fat Fed Mice

  • Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2021 Apr 13:12:615446. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2021.615446.
Muhammad Ishaq 1,  Duyen Tran 1,  Yijia Wu 1,  Krzysztof Nowak 1,  Bianca J Deans 2,  Joycelin Tan Zhu Xin 3,  Hui Lin Loh 3,  Wen Ying Ng 3,  Chin Wen Yee 3,  Benjamin Southam 4,  Silvia Vicenzi 1,  Cameron Randall 1,  Cheng Yang 1,  Ee Tan 1,  Manideepika Pasupuleti 1,  Avneet Kaur Grewal 1,  Tauseef Ahmad 4,  Madhur Shastri 4,  Carmelo Vicario 5,  Maurizio Ronci 6,  Mariachiara Zuccarini 6,  Martin Bleasel 1,  Paul Scowen 7,  William Raffaeli 8,  Gianvicenzo D'Andrea 8,  Dinesh Kumar Chellappan 3,  Glenn Jacobson 1,  Alex C Bissember 2,  Jason A Smith 2,  Raj Eri 4,  Juan Canales 9,  Miguel Iglesias 10,  Nuri Guven 1,  Vanni Caruso 1 8
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 School of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia.
  • 2 School of Natural Sciences-Chemistry, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia.
  • 3 School of Pharmacy, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
  • 4 School of Health Sciences, University of Tasmania, Newnham, TAS, Australia.
  • 5 Department of Psychology, University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
  • 6 Department of Pharmacy, University "G. d'Annunzio", Chieti, Italy.
  • 7 Animal Services department/Research Division, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia.
  • 8 Institute for Research on Pain, Istituto di Formazione e Ricerca in Scienze Algologiche (ISAL) Foundation, Rimini, Italy.
  • 9 School of Psychological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia.
  • 10 School of Health Sciences, University of Tasmania, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia.
PMID: 33927690 DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2021.615446
Abstract

Asperuloside is an iridoid glycoside found in many medicinal Plants that has produced promising anti-obesity results in animal models. In previous studies, three months of asperuloside administration reduced food intake, body weight, and adipose masses in rats consuming a high fat diet (HFD). However, the mechanisms by which asperuloside exerts its anti-obesity properties were not clarified. Here, we investigated homeostatic and nutrient-sensing mechanisms regulating food intake in mice consuming HFD. We confirmed the anti-obesity properties of asperuloside and, importantly, we identified some mechanisms that could be responsible for its therapeutic effect. Asperuloside reduced body weight and food intake in mice consuming HFD by 10.5 and 12.8% respectively, with no effect on mice eating a standard chow diet. Fasting glucose and plasma Insulin were also significantly reduced. Mechanistically, asperuloside significantly reduced hypothalamic mRNA ghrelin, Leptin, and pro-opiomelanocortin in mice consuming HFD. The expression of fat lingual receptors (CD36, FFAR1-4), CB1R and sweet lingual receptors (TAS1R2-3) was increased almost 2-fold by the administration of asperuloside. Our findings suggest that asperuloside might exert its therapeutic effects by altering nutrient-sensing receptors in the oral cavity as well as hypothalamic receptors involved in food intake when mice are exposed to obesogenic diets. This signaling pathway is known to influence the subtle hypothalamic equilibrium between energy homeostasis and reward-induced overeating responses. The present pre-clinical study demonstrated that targeting the gustatory system through asperuloside administration could represent a promising and effective new anti-obesity strategy.

Keywords

CD36; FFAR1-4; TAS1R2-3; asperuloside; cannabinoid (CB) receptor 1; food intake; nutrient-sensing mechanisms; weight loss.

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