Ginsenoside Rg1 can reverse fatigue behavior in CFS rats by regulating EGFR and affecting Taurine and Mannose 6-phosphate metabolism 2023 Lei et al

Background: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is characterized by significant and persistent fatigue. Ginseng is a traditional anti-fatigue Chinese medicine with a long history in Asia, as demonstrated by clinical and experimental studies. Ginsenoside Rg1 is mainly derived from ginseng, and its anti-fatigue metabolic mechanism has not been thoroughly explored.

Methods: We performed non-targeted metabolomics of rat serum using LC-MS and multivariate data analysis to identify potential biomarkers and metabolic pathways. In addition, we implemented network pharmacological analysis to reveal the potential target of ginsenoside Rg1 in CFS rats. The expression levels of target proteins were measured by PCR and Western blotting.

Results: Metabolomics analysis confirmed metabolic disorders in the serum of CFS rats. Ginsenoside Rg1 can regulate metabolic pathways to reverse metabolic biases in CFS rats. We found a total of 34 biomarkers, including key markers Taurine and Mannose 6-phosphate. AKT1, VEGFA and EGFR were identified as anti-fatigue targets of ginsenoside Rg1 using network pharmacological analysis. Finally, biological analysis showed that ginsenoside Rg1 was able to down-regulate the expression of EGFR.

Conclusion: Our results suggest ginsenoside Rg1 has an anti-fatigue effect, impacting the metabolism of Taurine and Mannose 6-phosphate through EGFR regulation. This demonstrates ginsenoside Rg1 is a promising alternative treatment for patients presenting with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Open access, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2023.1163638/full

 

Click the spoiler to see how they tortured rats to 'model' CFS.

Spoiler

A multi-factor modeling method was used to simulate CFS pathogenesis (Shao et al., 2017): 1) Load-weighted forced swimming: Rats in the modeling group swam in a transparent toughened plastic bucket (diameter 20 × height 50 cm) for 10 min every day for 28 days. The water temperature of the swimming pool was controlled at 23°C ± 2°C. A small artery clip was attached to the lead wire about 5% of the body weight of the rat, and then the weight was placed on the back hair of each rat. 2) Restriction: The rats in the model group were bound to the wooden restriction frame (22 × 10 × 2 cm in length and 10 × 2 cm in thickness) for 3 h every day, respectively, and subjected to chronic restriction stress for 4 weeks.

 

Looks a lot like fitting the evidence to the model. Despite quoting large patient numbers: "an estimated 1–5 million people present with CFS in Europe every year" the only references for disease characteristics are two studies in young people which are followed with a defining reference for CFS in young people in China, from the abstact of which: " The main symptoms of CFS in these students included being afraid of going to school, despondency, and irritability in addition to those specified in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Our study shows that CFS is prevalent among Chinese teenagers, and requiring proper intervention and treatment."

Not so much a rat model for translation to humans as a human model translated to justify a study in rats.

 

Ginseng makes you feel hyper/jittery if you take it for too long. It's false energy. It will mess with your ability to fall asleep too.

 

They lost my trust on the first sentence. No one can qualitatively measure fatigue, or even identify different types of fatigue-like states, so it's wrong to claim that ME's 'fatigue-like' symptom has any correlation with measurements of mouse fatigue.

I found a dead mouse floating in a bucket of water. I often feel like not moving. So, is that dead mouse a good model of ME?

 

I dont know how many times we have to say ME CFS is not ''having been pushed to do a lot more exercise than youre used to & are now knackered"

FFS i just give up. All the wasted money and time. Quite apart from the cruelty... you cant test anything on animals that you think have CFS, you cant 'give' an animal CFS, you cant give it to anyone or anything by exhausting them, thats not what it is.

Give a couple thousand a nasty virus and collect the ones that dont recover after a couple of yrs & you might have a bunch of animals with ME?CFS, otherwise you are wasting your time, your funders money and the pain & suffering of sentient beings. Its just WRONG on every level.