The Natural Product Rotundic Acid Treats Both Aging and Obesity by Inhibiting PTP1B

The occurrence of obesity is associated with age. But their interplay remains mysterious. Here, we discovered that rotundic acid (RA), a plant-derived pentacyclic triterpene, was a powerful agent for both anti-aging and treating obesity. Considering that obese individuals decrease the appetite-suppressing and energy-expenditure-enhancing functions of leptin leading to obesity, we found RA was a leptin sensitizer, evidenced by observations that RA enhanced the leptin sensitivity to normal diet-induced obese (DIO) mice, and had minimal or no use to normal lean mice, leptin receptor-deficient (db/db) mice, and leptin-deficient (ob/ob) mice. Simultaneously, RA significantly increased energy expenditure, BAT thermogenesis, and glucose metabolism in DIO mice, as the results of enhancing leptin sensitivity. Regarding mode of action, we demonstrated that RA is a noncompetitive inhibitor of leptin negative regulators protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) and T-cell PTP through interaction with their C-terminus, thus leading to weight loss through enhancing leptin sensitivity. Besides, we showed that deletion of yPTP1 in yeast completely abolished the lifespan extension effect of RA, celstrol, and withaferin A, while these compounds exhibited PTP1B inhibition activity. Furthermore, PTP1B knockdown extend lifespan in yeast and human cells, indicating PTP1B is an important factor regulating cellular aging.