Overweight and obesity are now global epidemic and have become a severe public health problem in the whole world. Therefore, it is extremely urgent to develop safe and effective anti-obesity drugs. The current anti-obesity strategies are mainly aimed at restricting energy uptake and absorption. However, most therapies are not very effective. Now, a new study suggests that burning energy by activation of brown adipose tissue is alternative strategy bait against obesity.

Professor Wanzhu Jin of the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of sciences said: “As a novel anti-obesity probiotic - E. faecalis and its metabolite unsaturated long chain fatty acid - myristoleic acid (MA) can reduce adiposity via BAT activation and beige fat formation”.

As an energy-consuming organ, brown adipose tissue (BAT) and beige fat has received much attention. Previous studies have shown that BAT facilitates weight control and provides a potent anti-obesity effect. Therefore, increasing BAT activity could be a novel and effective therapeutic approach for obesity and its related diseases.

In the current study Jin’s group were demonstrated that ginseng extract can induce Enterococcus faecalis, which can produce an unsaturated long chain fatty acid (LCFA), MA. Research results indicated that E. faecalis and its metabolite MA can reduce adiposity via BAT activation and beige fat formation. This is the first time demonstrated that E. faecalis-LCFA (specifically MA) axis could reduce obesity by increasing BAT activity and beige fat formation.

“This study demonstrated the important role of MA in reducing obesity and improving related metabolic syndrome, as well as its tremendous application prospects” said study correspondence-author Wanzhu Jin. Related work，named "Myristoleic acid produced by enterococci reduces obesity through brown adipose tissue activation" was published online in the journal GUT on 19, Nov 2019 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2019-319114).