Paper Title
NUTRIGENOMIC EFFECT OF ALLICIN RICH GARLIC EXTRACT (ARGE) IN HFD-INDUCED OBESE RATS

Abstract
Garlic belongs to the Allium family of plants. For many centuries, garlic has been used as a herbal medicine for treating a wide range of ailments including hypertension, high blood cholesterol, thrombosis, hyperlipidemia, inflammation etc. Garlic in the form of methanolic extract or powder or oil has shown promising effects in the prevention of obesity by different mechanisms. A variety of organosulfur compounds such as allicin, diallyl sulfides, alliin and allyl trisulfides found in garlic attributes to its beneficial effects. In our study, allicin rich garlic extract (ARGE) was prepared to evaluate its nutrigenomic effect in the prevention of high fat diet (HFD) induced obesity and related complications. Chronic administration of ARGE prevented HFD-induced weight gain, adipose tissue hypertrophy and improved glucose homeostasis. We found that ARGE stimulated the browning of white adipose tissue as gene expression of beige/brite phenotype markers (PGC1-α, TMEM26, PAT2, P2RX5) were enhanced after ARGE administration. ARGE also increased the energy expenditure in these animals. Obesity is a multifactorial disease involving almost every organ of the body, so, gene expression analysis was done to evaluate the effect of ARGE in metabolically active organs like stomach, ileum, colon, hypothalamus and liver. Gene expression analysis of gut hormones, especially hunger and satiety hormones, revealed that ARGE supplementation prevented the hunger type phenotype by downregulating the expression of hunger hormones in stomach and hypothalamus. Overall, this study suggests that ARGE can be used as a potential nutraceutical ingredient for the prevention of obesity and related comorbidities.