Improving Lipophagy by Restoring Rab7 Cycle: Protective Effects of Quercetin on Ethanol-Induced Liver Steatosis

Chronic alcohol consumption retards lipophagy, which contributes to the pathogenesis of liver steatosis. Lipophagy-related Rab7 has been presumed as a crucial regulator in the progression of alcohol liver disease despite elusive mechanisms. More importantly, whether or not hepatoprotective quercetin targets Rab7-associated lipophagy disorder is unknown. Herein, alcoholic fatty liver induced by chronic-plus-single-binge ethanol feeding to male C57BL/6J mice was manifested by hampering autophagosomes formation with lipid droplets and fusion with lysosomes compared with the normal control, which was normalized partially by quercetin. The GST-RILP pulldown assay of Rab7 indicated an improved GTP-Rab7 as the quercetin treatment for ethanol-feeding mice. HepG2 cells transfected with CYP2E1 showed similar lipophagy dysfunction when exposed to ethanol, which was blocked when cells were transfected with siRNA-Rab7 in advance. Ethanol-induced steatosis and autophagic flux disruption were aggravated by the Rab7-specific inhibitor CID1067700 while alleviated by transfecting with the Rab7^Wt plasmid, which was visualized by immunofluorescence co-localization analysis and mCherry-GFP-LC3 transfection. Furthermore, TBC1D5, a Rab GTPase-activating protein for the subsequent normal circulation of Rab7, was downregulated after alcohol administration but regained by quercetin. Rab7 circulation retarded by ethanol and corrected by quercetin was further revealed by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP). Altogether, quercetin attenuates hepatic steatosis by normalizing ethanol-imposed Rab7 turnover disorders and subsequent lipophagy disturbances, highlighting a novel mechanism and the promising prospect of quercetin-like phytochemicals against the crucial first hit from alcohol.