Host miR-129-5p reverses effects of ginsenoside Rg1 on morphine reward possibly mediated by changes in B. vulgatus and serotonin metabolism in hippocampus

ABSTRACT

Morphine addiction is closely associated with dysbiosis of the gut microbiota. miRNAs play a crucial role in regulating intestinal bacterial growth and are involved in the development of disease. Ginsenoside Rg1 exhibits an anti-addiction effect and significantly improves intestinal microbiota disorders. In pseudo-germfree mice, supplementation with Bacteroides vulgatus (B. vulgatus) synergistically enhanced Rg1 to alleviate morphine addiction. However, it is currently unknown the relationship between fecal miRNAs in morphine-exposed mice and their potential modulation of gut microbiome, as well as their role in mediating the resistance of ginsenoside Rg1 to drug addiction. Here, we studied the fecal miRNA abundance in mice treated with morphine to explore the different miRNAs expressed, their association with B. vulgatus and their role in the amelioration of morphine reward by ginsenoside Rg1. Our results indicated ginsenoside Rg1 attenuated the significant increase in miR-129-5p expression observed in the feces of morphine-treated mice. The miR-129-5p, specifically, inhibited the growth of B. vulgatus by modulating the transcript of the site-tag BVU_RS11835 and increased the levels of 5-hydroxytryptophan and indole-3-carboxaldehyde in vitro. Subsequently, we noticed that oral administration of synthetic miR-129-5p increased 5-HT levels in the hippocampus and inhibited the reversal effect of ginsenoside Rg1 both on the relative abundance of B. vulgatus in the feces and CPP effect induced by morphine exposure. In short, Ginsenoside Rg1 might play an indirect role in remodeling the B. vulgatus against morphine reward by suppressing miR-129-5p expression. These results highlight the role of miR-129-5p and B. vulgatus in morphine reward and the anti-morphine addiction of ginsenoside Rg1.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Morphine
• ginsenoside Rg1
• miR-129-5p
• Bacteroides vulgatus
• gut microbiota

Authors’ contributions

C.L., Y.L. and R.L. contributed equally to this work; C.L. and Z.M. conceived the concept and designed the study; C.L., Y.L. and R.L. performed the research; Z.C. and Q.Z. analyzed and interpreted the data; C.L. and Z.M. drafted the article; C.-H. L. reviewed the manuscript; Z.M. obtained funding and supervised the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics statement

The ethics of the study protocol and experimental procedures were approved by the Science and Technology Committee and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Southern Medical University.

Data availability statement

Small RNA sequencing data and transcriptome sequencing data were deposited in Sequence Read Archive (SRA) (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra) under the accession number PRJNA941221 and PRJNA1013199. The Non-targeted metabolomics data was uploaded to MetaboLights (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/metabolights/) under the accession number MTBLS7341.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2023.2254946

Additional information

Funding

The work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [NSFC No. 81873030, 81828014] and Guangdong Natural Science Foundation [2021A1515011565].