Thunder God Vine: Poison or Miracle Anti-obesity Drug?

Scientists have been looking for magical plants that help people become slim in the world in recent decades. The market size of weight loss products and supplements has grown into billions of USD. Scientists have studied dandelion, coffee, nuts, and other plants, however, all those plants are not as promising as the traditional Chinese medicine called "thunder god vine" in treating obesity, according to early studies.

The medicine thunder god vine (TGV), also called Gelsemium elegans, is the dried root of the perennial vine: thunder god vine under Tripterygium genus of Celastraceae family. According to a study recently published on Diabetes, celastrol, one of the main active substances of TGV, could achieve weight loss by changing the energy consumption process of mice: the subcutaneous white adipose of the laboratory mice converted into brown adipose, and the burning and thermogenesis process of brown adipose was accelerated. This study supports the weight loss efficacy of celastrol, and relevant clinical trial is underway in the U.S., of which the preliminary results are highly anticipated.

In fact, there has been a report on the research of weight loss with TGV early in 2015. In a paper published on the U.S. Cell, scientists pointed out that TGV extract could reduce the food intake of the fat laboratory mice, and lead to a large decline of their weight by 45%. According to an author of the paper: Umut Ozcan, an endocrinologist from Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, such substance seemed to act by increasing content of an adipocyte-derived hormone: Leptin that could signal when the body has sufficient fuel and energy; people who lack leptin might eat excessively, and thus show morbid obesity.

In this research, Ozcan discovered that only one week after the treatment with celastrol, a TGV extract, the food intake of the mice that received the extract was 80% less than those not receiving it; three weeks later, the weight of the former reduced to nearly a half of their original weight.

This result was even more effective than the extreme means of weight loss surgery. Furthermore, scientists reported that they saw other health benefits from cholesterol lowering to liver function improvement, etc.

The toxic and side effects of TGV have received more and more attention as the clinical studies thereof become increasingly broader. Its toxic reaction mainly shows in the damage to the digestive system, reproductive system, and urinary system, etc., especially to the digestive system, such as liver and gastrointestinal tract, and to the reproductive system.

Hepatotoxicity

Liver is one of the main toxicity target organs most seriously damaged by TGV. The hepatotoxicity caused by TGV has similar clinical manifestations with acute viral hepatitis, mainly of weakness, nausea and vomiting, anorexia, hepatomegaly, and  tenderness, etc., with liver parenchyma change, disordered cell arrangement, and cholestatic phenomenon revealed by pathological examination.

Gastrointestinal toxicity

Gastrointestinal adverse reactions are the most common, mainly manifesting as loss of appetite, epigastric discomfort, nausea and vomiting, and abdominal pain and diarrhea, etc. The relevant animal poisoning experiment discovered marked hyperemia at the stomach bottom of poisoned mice, and irregular discrete ulcers of intestinal tract.

Toxicity to reproductive system

TGV preparations seriously damage the reproductive system, with toxicity reversible and having cumulation effect. Female patients might suffer menstrual disorder, hypaphrodisia, and those seriously damaged might suffer premature ovarian failure, and hypogonadotropic amenorrhoea, etc.; male patients might suffer reduced sperm count and activity, and long-term use might cause testicular atrophy and reduced fertility, etc.

Renal toxicity

TGV preparations might cause acute renal failure. In a relevant study, the high-dose TGV group showed a large amount of homogeneous red-stained substances in cortical kidney tubules, cloudy swelling of renal tubule epithelia, increased interstitial lymphocytes, and hemangiectasis, etc.; while the low-dose group showed significantly less red-stained substances, and inconspicuous cloudy swelling of renal tubule epithelia or other lesions. Most of the kidney injuries caused by TGV are reversible, and can recover after stop of the drug. Small dose of TGV and its preparations might cause reduced white blood cell count of the body, while large dose might also cause reduced white blood cell and red blood cell counts, with myelosuppression also discovered in autopsy and pathological examination.

Despite the remarkable weight loss effect, TGV has very serious toxicity, which limits its clinical use to an extent. An important issue the scientific community is currently faced with is how to reduce the toxic and side effects of TGV and give play to its best efficacy thus to better serve clinical use, on the premise of maintaining biological activity.

Finally, I’d like to remind you not to use drugs blindly for weight loss, because physical fitness is what matters most.

References:

1.Celastrol induced weight loss is driven by hypophagia and independent from UCP1；

2.Treatment of Obesity with Celastrol Molecular Understanding and Modern Application of Traditional Medicines: Triumphs and Trials;

3.黄郑隽,阙慧卿,朱惠,等.雷公藤甲素对生殖系统毒性的研究进展[ J ].药物评价研究, 2013 , 36 ( 3 ): 224 - 227.

3. Huang Zhengjuan, Que Huiqing, Zhu Hui et al. Research Progress in Toxicity of Triptolide on Reproductive System [J]. Drug Evaluation Research, 2013 , 36 ( 3 ): 224 - 227.

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