Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a promising potential therapeutic target for the treatment of
obesity and related
metabolic diseases.
Allicin, a natural product in garlic, has multiple biological and pharmacological functions. However, the role of
allicin in the regulation of metabolic organs, particularly BAT activation, has not been well studied. Here, we show that
allicin imparts a significant effect by inhibiting
body weight gain, decreasing adiposity, maintaining
glucose homeostasis, improving
insulin resistance, and ameliorating hepatic steatosis in obese mice. These observations strongly correlate with the activation of BAT. Notably,
allicin plays a role in BAT activation, which may partly contribute to the Sirt1-PGC1α-Tfam pathway. In addition,
allicin can significantly increase the succinylation levels of UCP1 in BAT by inhibiting sirt5, whereas excess
allicin induces autophagy/mitophagy and
mitochondrial dysfunction. Thus, our findings point to
allicin as a promising therapeutic approach for the treatment of
obesity and metabolic disorders.