Excessive
intake of fat and fructose in Western diets has been
confirmed to induce renal lipotoxicity, thereby driving the progression
of chronic kidney disease (CKD). This study was conducted to evaluate
the efficacy of magnoflorine in a CKD mouse model subjected to high-fat
and high-fructose diets. Our results demonstrated that magnoflorine
treatment ameliorated abnormal renal function indices (serum creatinine,
urea nitrogen, uric acid, and urine protein) in high-fat- and high-fructose-fed
mice. Histologically, renal tubular cell steatosis, lipid deposition,
tubular dilatation, and glomerular fibrosis were significantly reduced
by the magnoflorine treatment in these mice. Mechanistically, magnoflorine
promotes Parkin/PINK1-mediated mitophagy, thereby inhibiting NLRP3/Caspase-1-mediated
pyroptosis. Consistent findings were observed in the palmitic acid-incubated
HK-2 cell model. Notably, both silencing of Parkin and the use of
a mitophagy inhibitor reversed the inhibitory effect of magnoflorine
on NLRP3 inflammasome activation in vitro. Therefore, the present
study provides compelling evidence that magnoflorine improves renal
injury in high-fat- and high-fructose-fed mice by promoting Parkin/PINK1-dependent
mitophagy to inhibit NLRP3 inflammasome activation and pyroptosis.
Our findings suggest that dietary supplementation with magnoflorine
and magnoflorine-rich foods (such as magnolia) might be an effective
strategy for the prevention of CKD.