Burdock miR8175 in diet improves insulin resistance induced by obesity in mice through food absorption

Huichen Song; Huanhuan Shi; Mengru Ji; Jiaqi Ding; Lin Cong; Silin Chen; Jiahui Zhou; Xinyan Zha; Jinyang Ye; Runcheng Li; Xiaoyu Hou; Siyu Mao; Xiaohong Jiang; Wen Zhang; Jing Li; Yujing Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2024.109705

Burdock miR8175 in diet improves insulin resistance induced by obesity in mice through food absorption

iScience. 2024 Apr 9;27(5):109705. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109705. eCollection 2024 May 17.

Authors

Huichen Song^{1

2

3}, Huanhuan Shi^{1

2}, Mengru Ji^{1

2}, Jiaqi Ding^{1

2}, Lin Cong^{1

2}, Silin Chen^{1

2}, Jiahui Zhou^{1

2}, Xinyan Zha^{1

2}, Jinyang Ye¹, Runcheng Li¹, Xiaoyu Hou¹, Siyu Mao¹, Xiaohong Jiang^{1

2}, Wen Zhang⁴, Jing Li^{1

2}, Yujing Zhang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Center of Molecular Diagnostic and Therapy, State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Jiangsu Engineering Research Center for MicroRNA Biology and Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, NJU Advanced Institute of Life Sciences (NAILS), Institute of Artificial Intelligence Biomedicine, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
² Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Research Unit of Extracellular RNA, Nanjing 210023, China.
³ Department of Urology, Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University; Institute of Urology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210008, P.R. China.
⁴ Institues of Biomedical Sciences of Inner Mongolia University, Inner Mongolia 010020, China.

Abstract

The incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) induced by obesity is rapidly increasing. Although there are many synthetic drugs for treating T2DM, they have various side effects. Here, we report that miR8175, a plant miRNA from burdock root, has effective antidiabetic activity. After administration of burdock decoction or synthetic miR8175 by gavage, both burdock decoction and miR8175 can significantly improve the impaired glucose metabolism of diabetic mice induced by a high-fat diet (HFD). Our results demonstrate that burdock decoction and miR8175 enhance the insulin sensitivity of the hepatic insulin signaling pathway by targeting Ptprf and Ptp1b, which may be the reason for the improvement in metabolism. This study provides a theoretical basis for the main active component and molecular mechanism of burdock to improve insulin resistance. And the study also suggests that plant miRNA may be an indispensable nutrient for maintaining human health.

Keywords: Biological sciences; Cell biology; Molecular biology; Physiology.