Project description:Mining the Bitter Melon (Momordica charantia L.) Seed Transcriptome by 454 Analysis of Non-Normalized and Normalized cDNA Populations for Conjugated Fatty Acid Metabolism-Related Genes
Project description:Momordica charantia (MC) is a common vegetable in tropical areas and has been used for a long time as an alternative therapy for diabetes. Although several constituents of MC have displayed the hypoglycemic effects, the hypoglycemic targets of these constituents remain to be clarified. In this study, we analyzed and elucidated the therapeutic targets contributing to the hypoglycemic effect of aqueous extract of MC seeds (MCSE) by transcriptomic analysis. The protein ingredients aimed at the hypoglycemic target were further identified by proteomic, docking, and receptor-binding assays. Our data showed that MCSE, which was rich in small-molecular weight proteins, displayed hypoglycemic effects in normal and diabetic mice by glucose tolerance assay. MCSE significantly and primarily regulated the insulin signaling pathway in muscles and adipose tissues, suggesting that MCSE might target to insulin receptor (IR), stimulate the IR-downstream pathway, and subsequently display the hypoglycemic activity. We further identified that inhibitor against trypsin (TI) of MC directly docked into IR and activated the kinase activity of IR. In conclusion, our findings suggested that MCSE regulated glucose metabolism mainly via insulin signaling pathway. Moreover, we newly identified that TI was a novel IR-binding protein of MC that triggers the insulin signaling pathway via binding to IR.
