Antidiabetic Activity of Gomphogyne bonii Gagnep. Extract against High-Fat Diet and Alloxan-Induced Type 2 Diabetes in Mice

So far, diabetes mellitus has become a health threat to society all over the world. Especially, people with diabetes have always coped with complications related to this disease and unexpected side effects of synthetic drugs. Thus, there has been a current trend for researchers to find out new natural ingredients which were safer and still effective in the treatment of diabetes. Gomphogyne bonii Gagnep. extract (G. bonii extract) was an herbal-derived product of the Pharmacy Department, Vietnam University of Traditional Medicine. This study was designed to assess the antidiabetic effect of G. bonii extract on a high-fat diet (HFD) and alloxan-induced diabetes in mice. Mice were first fed a high-fat diet for 8 weeks and then given an intraperitoneal injection of alloxan (ALX) at the dose of 180 mg/kg b.w. After the diabetic mice model was successfully established, mice were administered orally with G. bonii extract at two doses of 4 mL/kg b.w/day and 12 mL/kg b.w/day for 2 weeks. The results revealed that G. bonii extract at both doses ameliorated the effects of ALX on the concentration of glucose, total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and microhistological images of livers. Besides, the antidiabetic effect of G. bonii extract at the dose of 12 mL/kg b.w/day was better than that at the dose of 4 mL/kg b.w/day. This suggested that G. bonii extract could be a potential agent for treating diabetes mellitus in clinical practice.

Gut Microbiota Depletion by Antibiotics Ameliorates Somatic Neuropathic Pain Induced by Nerve Injury, Chemotherapy and Diabetes in Mice

Background: Gut microbiota has been found involved in neuronal functions and neurological disorders. Whether and how gut microbiota impacts chronic somatic pain disorders remain elusive.Methods: Neuropathic pain was produced by different forms of injury or diseases, the chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerves, oxaliplatin (OXA) chemotherapy, and streptozocin (STZ)-induced diabetes in mice. Continuous feeding of antibiotics (ABX) cocktail was used to cause major depletion of the gut microbiota. Fecal microbiota, biochemical changes in the spinal cord and dorsal root ganglion (DRG), and the behaviorally expressed painful syndromes were assessed.Results: Under condition of gut microbiota depletion, CCI, OXA, or STZ treatment-induced thermal hyperalgesia or mechanical allodynia were prevented or completely suppressed. Gut microbiota depletion also prevented CCI or STZ treatment-induced glial cell activation in the spinal cord and inhibited cytokine production in DRG in OXA model. Interestingly, STZ treatment failed to induce the diabetic high blood glucose and painful hypersensitivity in animals with the gut microbiota depletion. ABX feeding starting simultaneously with CCI, OXA, or STZ treatment resulted in instant analgesia in all the animals. ABX feeding starting after establishment of the neuropathic pain in CCI- and STZ-, but not OXA-treated animals produced significant alleviation of the thermal hyeralgesia or mechanical allodynia. Transplantation of fecal bacteria from SPF mice to ABX treated mice partially restored the gut microbiota and fully rescued the behaviorally expressed neuropathic pain, of which, Akkermansia, Bacteroides, and Desulfovibrionaceae phylus may play a key role. Conclusion: This study demonstrates distinct roles of gut microbiota in the pathogenesis of chronic painful conditions with nerve injury, chemotherapy and diabetic neuropathy and supports the clinical significance of fecal bacteria transplantation.

Preliminary Analysis of the Antidiabetic Activity of Indonesian Polyherbal Formulation

This study aims to prepare polyherbal formulations and also analyze the antidiabetic potentials of the prepared polyherbal in animals. The ethanol extracts of the leaves of <em>Smallanthus sonchifolius</em>, <em>Stevia rebaudiana, Syzygium polyanthum</em>, and <em>Camellia sinensis</em> were used in this study. The extracts of the aforementioned plants were prepared in the ratio of 2:1:1:1. The formulation was tested for antidiabetic activity <em>in vitro</em> through the inhibition of alpha-glucosidase and <em>in vivo</em> using alloxan-induced diabetes in mice. The polyherbal has an inhibitory effect with the IC₅₀ value of 26.23 μg/mL compared to acarbose (control) was 17.02 μg/mL. The diabetic animals were observed to show an obvious decline in glucose level when compared with control (P&lt; 0.001) after treatment.