Ginsenoside Rg3 attenuates fatigue by restoring autophagic homeostasis via the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway in ammonium...

Fatigue is a widespread health problem, and abnormal autophagy in skeletal muscle cells is a key mechanism driving fatigue progression. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of ginsenoside Rg3 (Rg3) on fatigue in ammonium chloride (NH₄Cl)-induced C2C12 myoblasts cells and to elucidate its potential molecular mechanism. The potential anti-fatigue mechanism of Rg3 was predicted by network pharmacology and molecular dynamics simulations. C2C12 cells were treated with NH₄Cl to construct an in vitro fatigue model and then treated with Rg3. CCK-8, live/dead staining, Giemsa staining, autolysosome staining, and Western blot were used to evaluate cell viability, myotube morphology, autophagic flow, and key protein expression. Network pharmacology analysis indicated that the anti-fatigue effect of Rg3 was associated with the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway-regulated autophagy. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations confirmed that Rg3 binds strongly to PI3K. Cell experiments showed that Rg3 significantly attenuated cell death, myotube injury and abnormal autophagy in NH₄Cl-induced C2C12 cells. Moreover, Rg3 effectively activated the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. Our results indicated that the anti-fatigue effect of Rg3 may be associated with the attenuation of autophagy through activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. This provides a potential therapeutic candidate for fatigue intervention.