GUT: Enterococcal-nutmeg acid reduces obesity through brown adipose tissue activation

BACKGROUND and Objective:dietary fiber has a beneficial effect on energy metabolism, and most studies have focused on short-chain fatty acids produced by intestinal flora, but the mechanism of their action is not clearIn this study, the researchers aimed to study the potential regulatory effects of the intestinal flora, while identifying specific strains and their metabolites, especially long-chain fatty acids (LCFA), which regulate the anti-obesity effects of ginsenghow to:The researchers used ginseng extract (GE) to fill the stomach Db/db mice and used high-throughput sequencing based on 16S rDNA to assess the effects of GE on the intestinal floraAt the same time, in order to identify candidate fatty acids, the researchers conducted non-target metabolomic analysis of serum and medium samplesResult:This study proves that GE can induce the production of fecal enterococci, which can produce unsaturated LCFA, nutmeg acid (MA)Fecal enterococci and its metabolites MA can reduce fat deposition by activating brown adipose tissue (BAT) and beige fat formationIn addition, the researchers found that the gene of fecal enterococci, which encodes the acetylase A thiosterase (ACOT), showed the biosynthesis potential of the synthetic MA, as CRISPR-dCas9 significantly reduced the production of MA due to the low knock down (KD) of the ACOT geneIn addition, the treatment of exococcus animate in fecal cannot reproduce the beneficial effects of wild fecal enterococci, which acts by increasing the level of MA in the cycleConclusion:The intestinal flora-LCFA-BAT axis plays an important role in host metabolism, which may provide a strategic advantage for the development of the next generation of anti-obesity drugs