PPARα/γ, adiponectin, and GLUT4 overexpression induced by moronic acid methyl ester influenced glucose and triglyceride levels of experimental diabetic mice

Abstract

The current study aimed to determine the antidiabetic and antidyslipidemic activities of moronic acid methyl ester (1) by in vivo, in vitro, in silico and molecular biology studies. Compound 1 was evaluated to establish its dose-dependent antidiabetic and antihyperglycemic (50 mg/kg) activities, in diabetic and normoglycemic male CD1 mice, respectively. Also, compound 1 was subjected to a sub-acute study (50 mg/kg/day for eight days) to determine blood biochemical profiles and the expression of PTP-1B, GLUT4, PPAR-α, PPAR-γ, adiponectin, IL-1β, and MCP1 in adipose tissue of animals after treatment. Different doses in acute administration of 1 decreased glycemia (p < 0.05), compared with vehicle, showing greater effectiveness in the range 50-160 mg/kg. Also, the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) showed that 1 induced a significant antihyperglycemic action by opposing the hyperglycemic peak (p < 0.05). Moreover, 1 subacute administration decrease glucose and triglycerides levels after treatment (p < 0.05); while the expression of PPAR-α and γ, adiponectin and GLUT4 displayed an increase (p< 0.05) compared with the diabetic control group. In conclusion, compound 1 showed antihyperglycemic, antidiabetic and antidyslipidemic effects in normal and diabetic mice, probably due to insulin sensitization through increase mRNA expression of GLUT4, PPAR-α, PPAR-γ and adiponectin genes.

Chemical and cytotoxicity profiles of 11 pink pepper (Schinus spp.) samples via non-targeted hyphenated high-performance thin-layer chromatography

“…Although not yet fully understood, several studies have demonstrated that pentacyclic triterpenes can induce cell death by apoptosis (Chudzik et al, 2015 ; Coricovac et al, 2021 ; Hodoň et al, 2022 ; Mioc et al, 2022 ; Oprean et al, 2018 ; Ren & Kinghorn, 2019 ) or autophagy (El-Baba et al, 2021 ; Fogde et al, 2022 ; Wang et al, 2022b ). Also, moronic acid was shown to have cytotoxic properties (Rios et al, 2001 ) as well as other beneficial effects such as anti-viral (Chang et al, 2010 ; Yu et al, 2006 ), anti-inflammatory (Ruan & Zha, 2022 ) and anti-diabetic activity (Cerón-Romero et al, 2016 ; Estrada-Soto et al, 2022 ; Ramírez-Espinosa et al, 2013 ), indicating the potential of triterpenoic acids and the necessity of further studies for the investigation of their biological properties.…”