Gut: Chinese scholars found that ginseng extract can treat obesity by regulating intestinal flora

On November 19, 2019, researcher Jin Wanzhu, Institute of zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, published a research paper online in gut, a top medical journal, which first revealed the mechanism of ginseng extract to improve obesity by regulating intestinal flora, which is also the highest level academic paper published in ginseng research field worldwide Obesity has become a global epidemic, which increases the risk of various diseases, including type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease and some types of cancer Obesity is due to higher energy intake than energy consumption, resulting in excessive energy storage in white fat tissue (WAT) in the form of triglycerides Previous studies have shown that brown adipose tissue (BAT) contributes to weight control and obesity resistance Therefore, increasing bat activity may be an effective way to prevent and treat obesity and its related diseases Intestinal flora is an important environmental factor for gaining and storing energy in obese patients Previous studies have proposed In order to prevent and treat obesity, strategies of regulating intestinal microflora, such as prebiotics and probiotics can improve host metabolism and reduce obesity and its related metabolic diseases Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is mostly oral, which has been used for thousands of years in the treatment of various diseases Since ancient times, ginseng has the reputation of "king of all kinds of herbs", and it is also known as the best product of "Nourishing Yin, nourishing life and strengthening the root" by the oriental traditional medicine circle Ginseng, produced in Northeast China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan and eastern Russia, is one of the famous "three treasures in Northeast China" Ginseng is widely used as traditional medicine or functional food Ginsenoside is the main active component of ginseng, which has a variety of biological functions, including anti obesity and obesity related diseases It can be metabolized into rare saponins (such as ginsenoside CK) through the glycosylation reaction of intestinal microbiota before being absorbed by blood In addition, long-term administration of ginseng extract (GE) can change the composition of intestinal microflora However, the mechanism of human involvement in the complex interaction between intestinal microflora, secondary metabolites and obesity is not clear On November 19, 2019, researcher Jin Wanzhu of the Institute of zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as the corresponding author, published a research paper in the famous medical journal gut, entitled: myristoleic acid produced by enterococci reduces obesitity through Brown Adobe tissue activation This study is the first to reveal the mechanism of ginseng extract regulating intestinal flora to improve obesity It is the highest academic paper published in the field of ginseng research in the world Gut magazine, the official journal of British Society of Gastroenterology, ranks the second in the world in the Journal of Gastroenterology and hepatology It mainly publishes first-class clinical research articles related to digestive tract, liver, biliary system and pancreas, with the latest influencing factor of 17.943 The first unit of this paper is Yanbian University Dietary fiber has a beneficial effect on energy metabolism, and most studies focus on the short chain fatty acids produced by intestinal flora The aim of this study is to identify specific strains and their metabolites, especially long-chain fatty acids (LCFA), which can regulate the anti obesity effect of ginseng In this study, the effect of ginseng extract (GE) on intestinal flora of db / db mice was evaluated by 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing In order to identify the candidate fatty acids, the researchers conducted non-target metabonomics analysis of serum and culture medium samples This study found that ginseng extract can improve the composition of intestinal flora, enrich Enterococcus faecalis, promote its production of unsaturated long-chain fatty acid - myristic acid (MA) to participate in the body energy metabolism Further study found that E faecalis and myristic acid (MA) can reduce fat accumulation and improve obesity by stimulating the thermogenic activity of brown fat (BAT) and inducing the formation of beige fat In addition, through crispr-dcas9 technology, researchers found that acyl coenzyme a thiolipase (Acot) expressed by E faecalis can promote the biosynthesis of myristic acid (MA) It is worth mentioning that this study has proved for the first time that in addition to short-chain fatty acids, long-chain fatty acids (such as myristic acid) can improve obesity and its related metabolic syndrome, which has a huge application prospect In summary, this study demonstrated that the ginseng extract Enterococcus faecalis long chain fatty acid (especially myristic acid) axis resists obesity by increasing brown adipose tissue activity and beige fat formation by integrating data on intestinal microbiota, serum metabolic components and brown adipose tissue This study shows that ginseng can be used to develop anti obesity drugs, which is of great significance for promoting ginseng culture and developing ginseng industry in China The research was supported by NSFC, general support project of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, scientific research and innovation team project of Yanbian University, national excellent young and middle-aged cultivation fund project of Key Laboratory of the Ministry of education, etc Thesis link: https://gut.bmj.com/content/early/2019/11/18/gutjnl-2019-319114