Ginger‐derived nanoparticles protect against alcohol‐induced liver damage

Abstract

Daily exposure of humans to nanoparticles from edible plants is inevitable, but significant advances are required to determine whether edible plant nanoparticles are beneficial to our health. Additionally, strategies are needed to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying any beneficial effects. Here, as a proof of concept, we used a mouse model to show that orally given nanoparticles isolated from ginger extracts using a sucrose gradient centrifugation procedure resulted in protecting mice against alcohol-induced liver damage. The ginger-derived nanoparticle (GDN)–mediated activation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) led to the expression of a group of liver detoxifying/antioxidant genes and inhibited the production of reactive oxygen species, which partially contributes to the liver protection. Using lipid knock-out and knock-in strategies, we further identified that shogaol in the GDN plays a role in the induction of Nrf2 in a TLR4/TRIF-dependent manner. Given the critical role of Nrf2 in modulating numerous cellular processes, including hepatocyte homeostasis, drug metabolism, antioxidant defenses, and cell-cycle progression of liver, this finding not only opens up a new avenue for investigating GDN as a means to protect against the development of liver-related diseases such as alcohol-induced liver damage but sheds light on studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying interspecies communication in the liver via edible plant–derived nanoparticles.

Assessment of Ginger Extract and Ginger Nanoparticles Protective Activity against Acetaminophen-Induced Hepatotoxicity and Nephrotoxicity in Rats

“…Ginger nanoparticles are highly resistant to digestion in stomach and intestine. So, significant amounts of nanoparticles could reach to liver after oral administration (Zhuang et al, 2015) that provide a safe carrier for delivery and improved drug bioavailability within the hepatocytes .…”

“…To obtain ginger extract in nanoparticles size, the pellet after last centrifugation was resuspended in PBS for further centrifugation at 150,000g for 90min. The diameter of the nanoparticles ranged from 102.3 to 998.3 nm (Zhuang et al, 2015).…”

“…Recent studies demonstrated that ginger nanoparticles had anti-apoptotic activity (Abdu et al, 2017), hepatoprotective effect against alcohol-induced liver damage (Zhuang et al, 2015) and treatment of intestinal RESEARCH ARTICLE disorders and colon cancer (Zhang et al, 2017). Our study aimed to determine and compare the effectiveness of GNPs and ginger extract to protect adult male rat against paracetamol induced toxicity.…”

Edible ginger-derived nanoparticles: A novel therapeutic approach for the prevention and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and colitis-associated cancer

“…However, the nanoparticles synthesized to date have two major limitations: i) each constituent of the synthesized nanoparticles must be examined for potential in vivo toxicity before clinical application; and ii) the production scale is limited. In contrast, nanoparticles derived from natural sources are considered to be safe and cost effective that may overcome aforementioned limitations of synthetic nanoparticles [27]. Recently, exosome-like nanoparticles isolated from edible plants using an eco-friendly protocol have been characterized [28].…”

Protein biocargo of citrus fruit-derived vesicles reveals heterogeneous transport and extracellular vesicles populations

“…Natural plant-derived vesicles were shown 21 to have significant biological effects, like inhibition of cell proliferation, apoptotic effect on cancer cell 22 lines and induction of intestinal stem cells. (Ju et al, 2013;Raimondo et al, 2015;Zhuang et al, 2015) 23 Amongst the potential effectors there are different enzymes that are commonly associated to the protein 24 cargo of the vesicles. Enzymes present in vesicles being protected by the phospholipid membrane and 25 has been shown to survive protein degradation events and reach recipient cells in their active forms.…”