Lycium barbarum berries (gouqi, goji berries, or wolfberries), a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, have been widely viewed as "holy medicine" in China since ancient times. It was listed by China's former ministry of health as a homologous species for use in medicine and food in 1987. In addition, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) master Li Shizhen (1518-1593) of the Ming Dynasty recorded in his well-known "Ben Cao Gang Mu (Compendium of Materia Medica)" that the fruits of L. barbarum can strengthen human muscles and bones and have anti-fatigue and anti-aging effects. However, little has been known about scientific definitions of L. barbarum's traditional effects and its functional mechanisms till now.

A research group headed by CHEN Chang from the Institute of Biophysics (IBP) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) employed modern scientific technologies and concepts to explain the traditional functions of L. barbarum in improving muscle fitness. CHEN and her teammates found that the extract of L. barbarum berry can upregulate muscle fiber types through the activation of ERRγ in the signaling pathway of PKA-CREB to enhance muscle function in a manner similar to exercise. Their research article titled "An extract of Lycium barbarum mimics exercise to improve muscle endurance through increasing type IIa oxidative muscle fibers by activating ERRγ" was published online in FASEB Journal on July 30, 2020.

CHEN's research group took mice coded in C57BL/6 as their research target and conducted an examination of the effects of the extract of L. barbarum berry upon skeletal muscle components and energy metabolism. They found that the extract of L. barbarum berry can significantly increase the mass of tibial anterior muscle and gastrocnemius muscle of mice involved, reduce fat mass, and improve their average running distance or boost the endurance capacity of their muscles. Both in vivo and in vitro experiments showed that the extract of L. barbarum berry is expected to achieve the above-mentioned functions by increasing the proportion of type IIa oxidative muscle fibers and engaging in aerobic respiration.

Meanwhile, they also found in an in-depth study of the molecular mechanism of these effects that the extract of L. barbarum berries is able to upregulate the proportion of type IIa oxidative muscle fibers and maintain skeletal energy metabolism by activating ERRγ, in which the PKA-CREB signaling pathway was involved (Figure 1).

It is the first time that the extract of L. barbarum berries has been found with the functions in modulating skeletal muscle remodeling and energy metabolism, offering a scientific explanation about the traditional effects of L. barbarum.

The chart below shows that the extract of L. barbarum berries has mimetic effects in a manner similar to exercise on improving muscle endurance, increasing the proportion of oxidative muscle fibers, boosting muscle mass, reducing fat mass, stimulating energy production and switch, facilitating mitochondrial biogenesis, and promoting fatty acid oxidation as well as heat production.

The findings have given a scientific explanation about the efficacy of TCM in basic research, created scientific reference for the applied transformation of L. barbarum with mimetic effects in a manner to exercise in the benefit of long-distance runners, other endurance athletes, and those who are deprived of the ability to take part in physical exercise and or unsuitable for physical exercise, and promoted the further development of industries related to L. barbarum.

Prof. CHEN with the IBP is the correspondence author of the research article. Associate researcher MENG Jiao and doctoral student LYU Zhenyu are co-first authors of the article, while its authors also include SUN Chuanxin and QIAO Xinhua. The research program has received financial assistance from Ningxia Key Research and Development Program, Regional Key Projects of Science and Technology Service Network Plan of the CAS, Special Projects of Protein Machine and the Regulation of Life Course under the National Key R&D Program of China, the Strategic Priority Research Program of the CAS, and Key Program Project under the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Patent applications have been filed for relevant work.

Figure 1: Molecular mechanism of the efficacy of the extract of L. barbarum berries in increasing the proportion of oxidative muscle fibers, aerobic respiration, and muscle endurance by the activation of ERRγ in PKA-CREB signaling pathway with mimetic effects on skeletal muscles in a manner similar to exercise

Chart 1: Comparison between the efficacy of the extract of L. barbarum berries and aerobic exercise in improving muscle function

(Image by Dr. CHEN Chang’s group)

The web link for this paper is: https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1096/fj.202000136R

Contact: CHEN Chang
Institute of Biophysices, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Beijing 100101, China
Email: changchen@ibp.ac.cn

(Reported by Dr. CHEN Chang’s group)