Background/objective: An imbalance between energy intake and expenditure leads to obesity. Increasing metabolism and thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue (BAT) can help in overcoming obesity. Here, we investigated the effect of activation of transient receptor potential vanilloid subfamily 1 (TRPV1) in the upregulation of thermogenic proteins in BAT to counter diet-induced obesity. Subjects/methods: We investigated the effect of dietary supplementation of capsaicin (CAP) (TRPV1 agonist) on the expression of metabolically important thermogenic proteins in BAT of wild-type and TRPV1^−/− mice that received either a normal chow or high-fat (±CAP; TRPV1 activator) diet by immunoblotting. We measured the metabolic activity, respiratory quotient and BAT lipolysis. Results: CAP antagonized high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity without decreasing energy intake in mice. HFD suppressed TRPV1 expression and activity in BAT and CAP countered this effect. HFD-feeding caused glucose intolerance, hypercholesterolemia and decreased the plasma concentration of glucagon-like peptide-1 and CAP countered these effects. HFD suppressed the expression of metabolically important thermogenic genes, ucp-1, bmp8b, sirtuin-1 (SIRT-1), PPARγ coactivator 1α and PR domain containing zinc finger protein 16 (prdm-16) in BAT and CAP prevented this effect. CAP increased the phosphorylation of SIRT-1 and induced an interaction between peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) with PRDM-16. Further, CAP treatment, in vitro, decreased the acetylation of PRDM-16, which was antagonized by inhibition of TRPV1 by capsazepine, chelation of intracellular Ca²⁺ by cell permeable BAPTA-AM or the inhibition of SIRT-1 by EX527. Further, CAP supplementation, post HFD, promoted weight loss and enhanced the respiratory exchange ratio. CAP did not have any effect in TRPV1^−/− mice. Conclusions: Our data show that activation of TRPV1 in BAT enhances the expression of SIRT-1, which facilitates the deacetylation and interaction of PPARγ and PRDM-16. These data suggest that TRPV1 activation is a novel strategy to counter diet-induced obesity by enhancing metabolism and energy expenditure.

An imbalance between energy intake and expenditure leads to obesity. Adiposity associated with obesity progressively causes inflammation, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and cardiovascular disease. Excessive dietary intake of fat results in its accumulation and storage in the white adipose tissue (WAT), whereas energy expenditure by fat utilization and oxidation predominately occurs in the brown adipose tissue (BAT). Recently, the presence of a third type of fat, referred to as beige or brite (brown in white), has been recognized in certain kinds of WAT depots. It has been suggested that WAT can undergo the process of browning in response to stimuli that induce and enhance the expression of thermogenes characteristic of those typically associated with brown fat. The resultant beige or brite cells enhance energy expenditure by reducing lipids stored within adipose tissue. This has created significant excitement towards the development of a promising strategy to induce browning/beiging in WAT to combat the growing epidemic of obesity. This review systematically describes differential locations and functions of WAT and BAT, mechanisms of beiging of WAT and a concise analysis of drug molecules and natural products that activate the browning phenomenon in vitro and in vivo. This review also discusses potential approaches for targeting WAT with compounds for site-specific beiging induction. Overall, there are numerous mechanisms that govern browning of WAT. There are a variety of newly identified targets whereby potential molecules can promote beiging of WAT and thereby combat obesity.

Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and trimethoprim (TMP) individually and a combination known as cotrimoxazole (SMX-TMP) are widely used for the treatment of protozoan and bacterial infections. SMX-TMP is also one of the widely used antibiotics administered orally in neonates, along with gentamicin injection, for treating pneumonia and sepsis by home-based healthcare providers in Asian countries. Although the use of this drug has successfully reduced neonate mortality, there is a concern for it causing neurotoxicity. Previous clinical studies with sulfisoxazole have demonstrated occurrence of kernicterus in neonates. This sulfonamide is thought to displace bilirubin from its albumin-binding sites in plasma leading to an elevation of plasma bilirubin, which crosses the blood–brain barrier, reaches central neurons to cause kernicterus. We performed an extensive review of clinical and animal studies with cotrimoxazole, which showed no reported incidences of kernicterus with SMX-TMP use in neonates. EndNote, BasicBiosis, Embase, PubMed and Toxline database searches were conducted using specific keywords yielding 74 full-length articles relevant to the review. This review has taken into account various factors, including the disease itself, direct effects of the drug and its metabolism through conjugation and acetylation through a thorough review of the literature to examine the potentials of SMX-TMP to cause kernicterus in neonates. SMX-TMP in oral doses administered to neonates for 7–10 days is unlikely to cause kernicterus. Also, this review recommends warranting the need of future studies using animal models and clinical studies in humans to address SMX-TMP toxicity.