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Microemulsion-based drug delivery system identifies pepper alkaloids as anti-obesity compounds

Acta Pharmacologica Sinica volume 46, pages 2310–2322 (2025)Cite this article

Abstract

Obesity is a significant contributor to various metabolic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. Due to the adverse effects of synthetic anti-obesity drugs, natural products from functional food plants, which mimic the effects of synthetic chemicals, present promising alternatives. However, many natural plant-derived compounds are poorly soluble in water, resulting in low bioavailability within the gastrointestinal tract, a key limitation for the effectiveness of many hydrophobic substances. In this study we developed a microemulsion-based drug delivery system in Drosophila, which effectively enhanced the solubility of hydrophobic compounds without noticeable effects on food intake or survival in fruit flies. This system consisted of cremophor EL, ethanol and ethyl oleate (7:6:1), which enabled the establishment of an emulsion-based liquid high-fat diet (LHFD) model, followed by a pilot screening of 161 standard substances from traditional Chinese medicine. We found that piperine (PIP), an alkaloid derived from black pepper, significantly decreased triacylglycerol (TAG) levels in both the intestine and in whole flies. We demonstrated that piperine (1 mg/ml) significantly elevated cytosolic Ca2+ levels in enterocytes by activating Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels. TRPV1 agonists such as capsaicin and evodiamine (another alkaloid identified during the screening) also exhibited anti-obesity effects. Increased Ca2+ levels resulted in the suppression of dietary lipase Magro expression through the activation of the transcription factor cAMP response element binding protein (CREB). Furthermore, hydrophobic compounds in the microemulsion were successfully delivered to distal tissues including liver and brain blood vessels in mice, and PIP in the microemulsion was sufficient to reduce body weight in mice. In conclusion, we have developed a microemulsion-based U-GLAD platform for drug delivery, and piperine is identified as a weight-controlling compound, providing a novel approach to the treatment of obesity and its associated symptoms.

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Fig. 1: A microemulsion-based U-GLAD delivery system for compound screening in adult flies.
Fig. 2: An anti-obesity compound screen in Drosophila using micro-emulsion-based U-GLAD system.
Fig. 3: PIP suppresses both dietary and genetically induced obesity in flies.
Fig. 4: Capsaicin and evodiamine also suppress diet-induced obesity in flies.
Fig. 5: Piperine suppresses lipid levels by activating cytosolic Ca2+ signaling through the TRP pathway.
Fig. 6: Piperine regulates lipid metabolism through the downstream transcription factor CREB.
Fig. 7: Piperine suppresses dietary lipid uptake by downregulating Magro expression downstream of CREB.
Fig. 8: Microemulsion-mediated delivery of PIP suppresses body weight in mice.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Key Research and Development Project (2018YFA0107100), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31871371 and 32071147 to HSD). We thank Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center, Vienna Drosophila Stock Center, Tsinghua Fly Center for stocks and reagents.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Tian-kai Meng, Ruo-lei Han

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yangzhi Rehabilitation Hospital, Sunshine Rehabilitation Center, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Tian-kai Meng, Ruo-lei Han, Peng Ma, Shu-xin Chen, Bo-han Qi, Zi-xuan Wang, Xiao-yu Li & Han-song Deng

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Contributions

T-kM and R-lH contributed equally to the conception and design of the study. T-kM, R-lH, PM, S-xC, B-hQ, X-yL contributed to the experimental work. Z-xW and X-yL were involved in the discussion of the experiments. T-kM and R-lH conducted the statistical analysis of the data. H-sD wrote and revised the paper. All the authors have read and approved the final paper.

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Correspondence to Han-song Deng.

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Meng, Tk., Han, Rl., Ma, P. et al. Microemulsion-based drug delivery system identifies pepper alkaloids as anti-obesity compounds. Acta Pharmacol Sin 46, 2310–2322 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41401-025-01521-x

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