Search

Red peppers and red pepper paste are reported to have anti-obesity, analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects in animals and humans due to the capsaicin in red pepper. We investigated whether consuming capsaicin and capsiate, a nonpungent capsaicin analogue, modifies glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, pancreatic β-cell survival and insulin sensitivity in 90% pancreatectomized (Px) diabetic rats, a moderate and non-obese type 2 diabetic animal model. Px diabetic rats were divided into 3 treatment groups: 1) capsaicin (Px-CPA), 2) capsiate (Px-CPI) or 3) dextrose (Px-CON) and provided high fat diets (40 energy % fat) containing assigned components (0.025% capsaicin, capsiate, or dextrose) for 8 weeks. Both capsaicin and capsiate reduced body weight gain, visceral fat accumulation, serum leptin levels and improved glucose tolerance without modulating energy intake in diabetic rats. In comparison to the control, both capsaicin and capsiate potentiated first and second and phase insulin secretion during hyperglycemic clamp. Both also increased β-cell mass by increasing proliferation and decreasing apoptosis of β-cells by potentiating insulin/IGF-1 signaling. However, only capsiate enhanced hepatic insulin sensitivity during euglycemic hyperinuslinemic clamp. Capsiate reduced hepatic glucose output and increased triglyceride accumulation in the hyperinsulinemic state and capsiate alone significantly increased glycogen storage. This was related to enhanced pAkt→PEPCK and pAMPK signaling. Capsaicin and capsiate reduced triglyceride storage through activating pAMPK. In conclusion, capsaicin and capsiate improve glucose homeostasis but they differently enhance insulin sensitivity in the liver, insulin secretion patterns, and islet morphometry in diabetic rats. Capsiate has better anti-diabetic actions than capsaicin.

An effective HPLC method to analyse platycosides from the balloon flower root was developed using ELSD. The optimum resolution of the platycosides was achieved on an ODS column with gradient elution of eluent A, 30mM ammonium acetate buffer (pH 4.81): methanol: acetonitrile=75:5:20 (v/v/v), and B, 69:5:26 (v/v/v). Amongst 18 platycosides, platycoside E showed the highest content, followed by polygalacin D2 and 3″-O-acetylplatyconic acid A. The sum of these three compounds was recommended for quality control of balloon flower root for medicinal purposes. The samples could be clustered into groups based on platycoside content. Group I, characterised by a high concentration of platycosides, was located near the west coast of Korea, whereas group II, characterised by a low concentration of platycosides, was located inland or in mountainous area. The method could be used to control the quality of balloon flower root.

Glucose deprivation, a feature of poorly vascularized solid tumors, activates the unfolded protein response (UPR) which is a stress-signaling pathway in tumor cells that is associated with the molecular chaperone GRP78 and induction of GRP78 has been shown to protect them against programmed cell death. Thus, targeting glucose-deprived conditions may be a novel strategy in anticancer drug development. Based on that, we established a novel screening program for chaperone modulators that preferentially cytotoxic activity in cancer cells under glucose-deprived conditions. During the course of our screening system, we recently isolated an active compound, 326-2, from Penicillium verrucosum var. cyclopium and identified it as a down-regulator of the grp78 gene. As expected, 326-2 inhibited the expression of the GRP78 promoter under glucose-deprived conditions in a dose-dependent manner with an IC50 value of 50 nM. Furthermore, 326-2 was identified as verrucosidin, a pyrone-type polyketide, by ESI-MS analyses and various NMR spectroscopic methods. We found that verrucosidin prevents UPR-induced expression of protein, such as GRP78, whose expression is induced by glucose-deprived or by 2-deoxyglucose; this effect is not seen under normal growth conditions. The GRP78-inhibitory action of verrucosidin was dependent on strict hypoglycemic conditions and resulted in selective cell death of glucose-deprived HT-29 human colon cancer cells.