Natural products for controlling hyperlipidemia: review

Molecular insight into the mechanism of lipid regulating effect of Alisma orientalis based on ACAT

We studied the lipid-regulating effect and molecular mechanism of the medical components of Alisma orientalis: alisol A, alisol B, 23-acetyl alisol C (23C) and the 3 (alisol A): 1(alisol B):1(23C) and 2(alisol A):2(alisol B):1(23C) mixtures designed based on the ratio of them in Alisma orientalis from Fujian, Guangxi Province, China. The animal experiment and network pharmacology showed that ACAT was one of its lipid-regulating targets and alisols may reduce the level of TC by inhibiting ACAT activity. The molecular simulation and homologous modeling results suggested that the binding of alisol mixtures with ACAT was stronger than that of monomers because alisol monomers acted on different active regions of ACAT resulting in the superposition effect and caused the synergistic effect. The lipid-regulating effect of Fujian mixture was stronger than that of Guangxi mixture showing that 3:1:1 was a better ratio. The N-terminal lipid-regulating activity of ACAT was stronger than that of transmembrane domain 1.

Hypolipidemic effect of pure total flavonoids from peel of Citrus (PTFC) on hamsters of hyperlipidemia and its potential mechanism

Citrus is a group of popular fruit that includes oranges, lemons, limes and grapefruit but research of its peel on hyperlipidemia and its mechanism is rare reported. We examined the effect of pure total flavonoids from peel of Citrus (PTFC), an extract from the peel of Citrus Changshan-huyou which is a popular fruit in China, on hamsters with hyperlipoidemia induced by high-fat diet (HFD). We found that PTFC significantly reduced levels of serum cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) and improved levels of alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST) and Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) which associated with liver function in golden hamsters. Liver pathological results confirmed that the liver pathological section of golden hamster treated with PTFC was significantly improved compared with that of HFD group. The content of main cholesterol metabolic enzymes Cholesterol 7a-hydroxylase (CYP7A1) in liver was obviously recovered with PTFC treatment. Further studies shown that PTFC attenuated oxidative stress and free radical damage through superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malonyldialdehyde (MDA) tests and inflammatory injury by levels of Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) both in serum and hepatocyte of golden hamsters. Moreover, PTFC increased levels of RNA and protein expression of Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPAR-α) and PPAR-γ in liver, fat and skeletal muscle of hyperlipidemia golden hamster, significantly. Our results suggested that PTFC could play a hypolipidemic role through improvement of liver function by antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in hyperlipoidemia hamsters, its mechanism of action may through activating of PPARα and PPARγ.