Allicin Regulates Energy Homeostasis through Brown Adipose Tissue

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.