Yiyou Lin, Congcong Zhang, Guilin Ren, Jiannan Qiu, Yilong Fu, Fucai Liu, Qingsheng Liu, Zhiling Yu, Lin Chen, Xiaobing Dou
School of Life Sciences, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, PR China; Zhejiang-Hong Kong Joint Laboratory of Liver and Spleen Simultaneous Treatment in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhejiang, PR China.
Hangzhou Third People's Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, PR China.
Phytomedicine. 2025 Jun 22;145:156992. doi: 10.1016/j.phymed.2025.156992.
BACKGROUND: Alisol B (AB) has been demonstrated to be a potential lead compound in improving obesity-related metabolic disorders. Nevertheless, the effects and mechanisms of AB on Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) remain unclear. PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the improvement of AB on MASLD and explore the intricate mechanism involving gut microbiota and liver metabolism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The MASLD mice model was established by feeding a high-fat diet and oral treatment with AB. The effects of AB on lipid metabolism in MASLD were initially measured. Subsequently, 16S rRNA gene sequencing, untargeted metabolomics combined with network pharmacology analysis was used to unveil the potential mechanism of AB on MASLD. A series of molecular biology experiments was conducted to confirm the results of the multi-omics analysis and to elucidate the key mechanism. RESULTS: AB attenuated liver steatosis and improved liver injury in MASLD mice. AB treatment improved the diversity of gut microbiota and increased the abundance of Akkermansia, Escherichia-Shigella, and Muribaculu in MASLD mice. Based on correlation analysis between differential intestinal microbiota and metabolites, metabolites involving sodium oleate, helleolate acetate 3-acetate and oxaminate were identified as key metabolites. In addition, integrating metabolomics and network pharmacology showed that AB alleviated MASLD by regulating the purine metabolism pathway and de novo fatty acid biosynthesis. Then, we focused on the role of purine metabolism in the treatment of MASLD by AB. Notably, AB inhibited the urine acid level in serum and liver of MASLD mice and hepatic XO activity and expression. AB markedly reduced the hypoxanthine and allantoin levels, increased the inosine level in the livers of MASLD mice, indicating that AB significantly reversed the dysfunction of hepatic purine metabolism in MASLD. Moreover, Molecular docking and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) results demonstrated that AB directly binds to XO. Overexpressing XO abolished the effect of AB in lipid accumulations in AML-12 cells. AB may alleviate MASLD by directly targeting XO to inhibit purine metabolism disorders in the liver. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that AB treatment attenuates HFD-induced MASLD through dual mechanisms involving gut microbiota modulation and restoration of hepatic metabolic homeostasis. Comprehensive mechanistic analysis revealed that AB ameliorates hepatic steatosis and corrects purine metabolism dysregulation in MASLD pathogenesis through specific inhibition of XO. These findings provide novel mechanistic insights into the hepatoprotective properties of AB and establish its therapeutic potential for MASLD intervention.
背景:泽泻醇B(AB)已被证明是改善肥胖相关代谢紊乱的潜在先导化合物。然而,AB对代谢功能障碍相关脂肪性肝病(MASLD)的影响和机制仍不清楚。 目的:本研究旨在探讨AB对MASLD的改善作用,并探索涉及肠道微生物群和肝脏代谢的复杂机制。 材料与方法:通过高脂饮食喂养和口服AB建立MASLD小鼠模型。首先测定AB对MASLD脂质代谢的影响。随后,采用16S rRNA基因测序、非靶向代谢组学结合网络药理学分析,揭示AB对MASLD的潜在作用机制。进行了一系列分子生物学实验,以证实多组学分析的结果,并阐明关键机制。 结果:AB减轻了MASLD小鼠的肝脏脂肪变性,改善了肝损伤。AB治疗改善了MASLD小鼠肠道微生物群的多样性,增加了阿克曼氏菌、埃希氏菌-志贺氏菌和毛螺菌科的丰度。基于差异肠道微生物群与代谢物之间的相关性分析,确定油酸钠、乙酸海索酸盐3-乙酸酯和草氨酸盐等代谢物为关键代谢物。此外,整合代谢组学和网络药理学表明,AB通过调节嘌呤代谢途径和从头脂肪酸生物合成减轻MASLD。然后,我们重点研究了嘌呤代谢在AB治疗MASLD中的作用。值得注意的是,AB抑制了MASLD小鼠血清和肝脏中的尿酸水平以及肝脏黄嘌呤氧化酶(XO)的活性和表达。AB显著降低了MASLD小鼠肝脏中的次黄嘌呤和尿囊素水平,并提高了肌苷水平,表明AB显著逆转了MASLD中肝脏嘌呤代谢的功能障碍。此外,分子对接和表面等离子体共振(SPR)结果表明,AB直接与XO结合。过表达XO消除了AB对AML-12细胞脂质积累的影响。AB可能通过直接靶向XO抑制肝脏嘌呤代谢紊乱来减轻MASLD。 结论:我们的结果表明,AB治疗通过涉及肠道微生物群调节和恢复肝脏代谢稳态的双重机制减轻了高脂饮食诱导的MASLD。综合机制分析表明,AB通过特异性抑制XO改善了MASLD发病机制中的肝脏脂肪变性并纠正了嘌呤代谢失调。这些发现为AB的肝脏保护特性提供了新的机制见解,并确立了其对MASLD干预的治疗潜力。
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