Identification and Evaluation of Acyltransferase Inhibitors from Edible Plant Sources for Management and Prevention of Obesity.

Currently obesity has become a major health problem and the discovery of highly efficacious and
well tolerated lipid lowering drugs has become the major focus of scientific research. Though
many studies have provided solutions that can control diet-induced obesity, these solutions
impart various complications and side effects upon long term usage. Hence, there isa need for
safer alternatives that modulate the enzymes that are involved in obesity. The dietary
triacylglycerol (TAG) gets absorbed and accumulated in the body through the monoacylglycerol
(MAG) pathway, which plays a major role in obesity and related disorders. The main enzyme of
this pathway, monoacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 (MGAT2) is considered as a potential target
for developing anti-obesity compounds. Food based natural molecules that modulate MGAT2 in
the small intestine can be developed as safe and effective nutraceuticals for obesity and other
related complications. There is a need for in vitro cell- based assays for screening the potential
natural leads for MGAT2 inhibition. Therefore; we optimized a 2-MAG induced TAG
accumulation inhibitory cell-based assay to screen natural extracts using the HIEC-6 cell line