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Metformin and vitamin B12 deficiency?

Posted in Clinical & Translational, Clinical Diagnostics, Curation, Diabetes Mellitus, Endocrine Diseases, Folate and B12, Hematology, Hematopoiesis, tagged , , , , on March 14, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Metformin and vitamin B12 deficiency?

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator

LPBI

 

Years of taking popular diabetes drug tied to risk of B12 deficiency

BY KATHRYN DOYLE  http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-metformin-b12-deficiency-idUSKCN0WC211

(Reuters Health) – – People taking metformin, a common type 2 diabetes medication, for several years may be at heightened risk of vitamin B12 deficiency and anemia, according to a new analysis of long-term data.

Metformin helps to control the amount of sugar, or glucose, in the blood by reducing how much glucose is absorbed from food and produced by the liver, and by increasing the body’s response to the hormone insulin, according to the National Institutes of Health.

“Metformin is the most commonly used drug to treat type 2 diabetes, so many millions of people are taking it, usually for a prolonged period (many years),” said senior study author Dr. Jill P Crandall of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, by email.

“Smaller numbers of people take metformin for prevention of diabetes or treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome,” Crandall told Reuters Health.

The researchers used data from the Diabetes Prevention Program and the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study, which followed participants at high risk for type 2 diabetes for more than 10 years.

The study began with more than 3,000 people age 25 years and older with high blood sugar. The participants were randomly assigned to receive either 850 milligrams of metformin twice daily, placebo medication or an intensive lifestyle program than did not include medication. For the new analysis only those taking placebo or metformin were considered, and about 50 participants were excluded after having weight-loss surgery, which would affect their diabetes outcomes.

During follow-up, the participants provided blood samples at the five- and 13-year points.

Using these blood samples, the researchers found that at year five, average B12 levels were lower in the metformin group than the placebo group, and B12 deficiency was more common, affecting 4 percent of those on metformin compared to 2 percent of those not taking the drug.

Borderline low B12 levels affected almost 20 percent of those on metformin and 10 percent of those taking placebo.

Average vitamin B12 levels were higher by year 13 than in year five, but B12 deficiency was also more common in both the metformin and placebo groups, as reported in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Vitamin B12 deficiency may lead to nerve damage which can be severe and may be irreversible, Crandall said.

“Severe and prolonged B12 deficiency has also been linked to impaired cognition and dementia,” she said. “It can also cause anemia (low red blood cell count) – fortunately, this condition is reversible with treatment.”

More people in the metformin group were also anemic at year five than in the placebo group.

There are more than three million cases of vitamin B12 deficiency each year in the U.S., which can be caused by diet or certain medical conditions. Symptoms include fatigue, and numbness or tingling.

Humans do not make vitamin B12 and need to consume it from animal sources or supplements. Vegetarians may get enough from eating eggs and dairy products, but vegans need to rely on supplements or fortified grains.

Doctors who prescribe metformin to patients long-term for type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes, polycystic ovarian syndrome or other indications should consider routine measurement of vitamin B12 levels, the authors conclude.

“The FDA and organizations such as the American Diabetes Association do not have any formal recommendations for B12 monitoring for people taking metformin,” Crandall said. “That said, our study (and others) suggests that a small but significant number of people may develop deficiency.”

“People who are taking metformin should ask their doctor about measuring their B12 level,” she said.

Restoring healthy B12 levels is easy to accomplish with pills or monthly injections, she added.

“The risk of B12 deficiency should not be considered a reason to avoid taking metformin,” Crandall said.

SOURCE: bit.ly/1SWRxed Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, online February 22, 2016.

 

Long-term Metformin Use and Vitamin B12 Deficiency in the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study

 Vanita R ArodaMD1, Sharon L EdelsteinScM2, Ronald B GoldbergMD3, William C KnowlerMD, DrPH4, …., Marinella G TemprosaPhD2, Neil H WhiteMD9, Jill P CrandallMD10, and Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group

http://dx.doi.org/10.1210/jc.2015-3754#sthash.ievZyXLD.dpuf    The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism    2016 Feb 22; jc20153754

Context:
 Vitamin B12 deficiency may occur with metformin treatment, but few studies have assessed risk with long-term use.
Objective:
 To assess risk of B12 deficiency with metformin use in the DPP/DPPOS
Design:
 Secondary analysis from DPP/DPPOS. Participants were assigned to placebo (n=1082, PLA) or metformin (n=1073, MET) for 3.2 years; MET received open-label metformin for an additional 9 years.
Setting:
27 study centers in the US
Patients:
 DPP eligibility: elevated fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, and overweight/obesity. Analytic population: participants with available stored samples. B12 levels were assessed at 5 (n=857, n=858) and 13 years [n=756, n=764] in PLA and MET, respectively.
Interventions:
 Metformin 850 mg twice daily versus placebo (DPP); open-label metformin in MET (DPPOS)
Main Outcome Measures:
 B12 deficiency, anemia, peripheral neuropathy
Results:
 Low B12 (≤203 pg/ml) occurred more often in MET than PLA at 5 years (4.3% vs 2.3%, p=0.02) but not at 13 years (7.4% vs. 5.4%, p=0.12). Combined low and borderline-low B12 (≤298 pg/ml) was more common in MET at 5 (19.1% vs 9.5%, p<0.01) and 13 years (20.3% vs 15.6%, p=0.02). Years of metformin use was associated with increased risk of B12 deficiency (OR B12 deficiency/year metformin use, 1.13, 95% CI 1.06–1.20). Anemia prevalence was higher in MET, but did not differ by B12 status. Neuropathy prevalence was higher in MET with low B12 levels.
Conclusions:
 Long-term use of metformin in DPPOS was associated with biochemical B12 deficiency and anemia. Routine testing of vitamin B12 levels in metformin-treated patients should be considered.

 

Metformin linked to vitamin B12 deficiency

David Holmes   Nature Reviews Endocrinology(2016)    http://dx.doi.org:/10.1038/nrendo.2016.39

Secondary analysis of data from the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS), one of the largest and longest studies of metformin treatment in patients at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus, shows that long-term use of metformin is associated with vitamin B12deficiency.

Aroda, V. R. et al. Long-term metformin use and vitamin B12 deficiency in the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study. J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. http://dx.doi.org/10.1210/jc.2015-3754 (2016)

 

Long-term Follow-up of Diabetes Prevention Program Shows Continued Reduction in Diabetes Development

http://www.diabetes.org/newsroom/press-releases/2014/long-term-follow-up-of-diabetes-prevention-program-shows-reduction-in-diabetes-development.html

San Francisco, California
June 16, 2014

Treatments used to decrease the development of type 2 diabetes continue to be effective an average of 15 years later, according to the latest findings of the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study, a landmark study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The results, presented at the American Diabetes Association’s 74th Scientific Sessions®, come more than a decade after the Diabetes Prevention Program, or DPP, reported its original findings. In 2001, after an average of three years of study, the DPP announced that the study’s two interventions, a lifestyle program designed to reduce weight and increase activity levels and the diabetes medicinemetformin, decreased the development of type 2 diabetes in a diverse group of people, all of whom were at high risk for the disease, by 58 and 31 percent, respectively, compared with a group taking placebo.

The Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study, or DPPOS, was conducted as an extension of the DPP to determine the longer-term effects of the two interventions, including further reduction in diabetes development and whether delaying diabetes would reduce the development of the diabetes complications that can lead to blindness, kidney failure, amputations and heart disease. Funded largely by the NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the new findings show that the lifestyle intervention and metformin treatment have beneficial effects, even years later, but did not reduce microvascular complications.

Delaying Type 2 Diabetes

Participants in the study who were originally assigned to the lifestyle intervention and metformin during DPP continued to have lower rates of type 2 diabetes development than those assigned to placebo, with 27 percent and 17 percent reductions, respectively, after 15 years.

“What we’re finding is that we can prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes, a chronic disease, through lifestyle intervention or with metformin, over a very long period of time,” said David M. Nathan, MD, Chairman of the DPP/DPPOS and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “After the initial randomized treatment phase in DPP, all participants were offered lifestyle intervention and the rates of diabetes development fell in the metformin and former placebo groups, leading to a reduction in the treatment group differences over time.  However, the lifestyle intervention and metformin are still quite effective at delaying, if not preventing, type 2 diabetes,” Dr. Nathan said. Currently, an estimated 79 million American adults are at high-risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

Microvascular Complications
The DPPOS investigators followed participants for an additional 12 years after the end of the DPP to determine both the extent of diabetes prevention over time and whether the study treatments would also decrease the small vessel -or microvascular- complications, such as eye, nerve and kidney disease. These long-term results did not demonstrate significant differences among the lifestyle intervention, metformin or placebo groups on the microvascular complications, reported Kieren Mather, MD, Professor of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and a study investigator.

“However, regardless of type of initial treatment, participants who didn’t develop diabetes had a 28 percent lower occurrence of the microvascular complications than those participants who did develop diabetes. These findings show that intervening in the prediabetes phase is important in reducing early stage complications,” Dr. Mather noted. The absence of differences in microvascular complications among the intervention groups may be explained by the small differences in average glucose levels among the groups at this stage of follow-up.

Risk for Cardiovascular Disease

The DPP population was relatively young and healthy at the beginning of the study, and few participants had experienced any severe cardiovascular events, such as heart attack or stroke, 15 years later. The relatively small number of events meant that the DPPOS researchers could not test the effects of interventions on cardiovascular disease. However, the research team did examine whether the study interventions, or a delay in the onset of type 2 diabetes, improved cardiovascular risk factors.

“We found that cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertension, are generally improved by the lifestyle intervention and somewhat less by metformin,” said Ronald Goldberg, MD, Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami and one of the DPPOS investigators. “We know that people with type 2 diabetes are at much higher risk for heart disease and stroke than those who do not have diabetes, so a delay in risk factor development or improvement in risk factors may prove to be beneficial.”

Long-term Results with Metformin

The DPP/DPPOS is the largest and longest duration study to examine the effects of metformin, an inexpensive, well-known and generally safe diabetes medicine, in people who have not been diagnosed with diabetes. For DPPOS participants, metformin treatment was associated with a modest degree of long-term weight loss. “Other than a small increase in vitamin B-12 deficiency, which is a recognized consequence of metformin therapy, it has been extremely safe and well-tolerated over the 15 years of our study,” said Jill Crandall, MD, Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a DPPOS investigator. “Further study will help show whether metformin has beneficial effects on heart disease and cancer, which are both increased in people with type 2 diabetes.”

Looking to the Future

In addition to the current findings, the DPPOS includes a uniquely valuable population that can help researchers understand the clinical course of type 2 diabetes.  Since the participants did not have diabetes at the beginning of the DPP, for those who have developed diabetes, the data show precisely when they developed the disease, which is rare in previous studies. “The DPP and DPPOS have given us an incredible wealth of information by following a very diverse group of people with regard to race and age as they have progressed from prediabetes to diabetes,” said Judith Fradkin, MD, Director of the NIDDK Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases. “The study provides us with an opportunity to make crucial discoveries about the clinical course of type 2 diabetes.”

Dr. Fradkin noted that the study population held promise for further analyses because researchers would now be able to examine how developing diabetes at different periods of life may cause the disease to progress differently. “We can look at whether diabetes behaves differently if you develop it before the age of 50 or after the age of 60,” she said. “Thanks to the large and diverse population of DPPOS that has remained very loyal to the study, we will be able to see how and when complications first develop and understand how to intervene most effectively.”

She added that NIDDK had invited the researchers to submit an application for a grant to follow the study population for an additional 10 years.

The Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study was funded under NIH grant U01DK048489 by the NIDDK; National Institute on Aging; National Cancer Institute; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; National Eye Institute; National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities; and the Office of the NIH Director; Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; Office of Research on Women’s Health; and Office of Dietary Supplements, all part of the NIH, as well as the Indian Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and American Diabetes Association. Funding in the form of supplies was provided by Merck Sante, Merck KGaA and LifeScan.

The American Diabetes Association is leading the fight to Stop Diabetes® and its deadly consequences and fighting for those affected by diabetes. The Association funds research to prevent, cure and manage diabetes; delivers services to hundreds of communities; provides objective and credible information; and gives voice to those denied their rights because of diabetes. Founded in 1940, our mission is to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes. For more information please call the American Diabetes Association at 1-800-DIABETES (1-800-342-2383) or visit http://www.diabetes.org. Information from both these sources is available in English and Spanish.

Association of Biochemical B12Deficiency With Metformin Therapy and Vitamin B12Supplements  

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999–2006

Lael Reinstatler, Yan Ping Qi, Rebecca S. Williamson, Joshua V. Garn, and Godfrey P. Oakley Jr.
Diabetes Care February 2012 vol. 35 no. 2 327-333      http://dx.doi.org:/10.2337/dc11-1582

OBJECTIVE To describe the prevalence of biochemical B12deficiency in adults with type 2 diabetes taking metformin compared with those not taking metformin and those without diabetes, and explore whether this relationship is modified by vitamin B12supplements.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Analysis of data on U.S. adults ≥50 years of age with (n = 1,621) or without type 2 diabetes (n = 6,867) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 1999–2006. Type 2 diabetes was defined as clinical diagnosis after age 30 without initiation of insulin therapy within 1 year. Those with diabetes were classified according to their current metformin use. Biochemical B12 deficiency was defined as serum B12concentrations ≤148 pmol/L and borderline deficiency was defined as >148 to ≤221 pmol/L.

RESULTS Biochemical B12 deficiency was present in 5.8% of those with diabetes using metformin compared with 2.4% of those not using metformin (P = 0.0026) and 3.3% of those without diabetes (P = 0.0002). Among those with diabetes, metformin use was associated with biochemical B12 deficiency (adjusted odds ratio 2.92; 95% CI 1.26–6.78). Consumption of any supplement containing B12 was not associated with a reduction in the prevalence of biochemical B12deficiency among those with diabetes, whereas consumption of any supplement containing B12 was associated with a two-thirds reduction among those without diabetes.

CONCLUSIONS Metformin therapy is associated with a higher prevalence of biochemical B12 deficiency. The amount of B12recommended by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) (2.4 μg/day) and the amount available in general multivitamins (6 μg) may not be enough to correct this deficiency among those with diabetes.

It is well known that the risks of both type 2 diabetes and B12deficiency increase with age (1,2). Recent national data estimate a 21.2% prevalence of diagnosed diabetes among adults ≥65 years of age and a 6 and 20% prevalence of biochemical B12 deficiency (serum B12<148 pmol/L) and borderline deficiency (serum B12 ≥148–221 pmol/L) among adults ≥60 years of age (3,4).

The diabetes drug metformin has been reported to cause a decrease in serum B12 concentrations. In the first efficacy trial, DeFronzo and Goodman (5) demonstrated that although metformin offers superior control of glycosylated hemoglobin levels and fasting plasma glucose levels compared with glyburide, serum B12 concentrations were lowered by 22% compared with placebo, and 29% compared with glyburide therapy after 29 weeks of treatment. A recent, randomized control trial designed to examine the temporal relationship between metformin and serum B12 found a 19% reduction in serum B12 levels compared with placebo after 4 years (6). Several other randomized control trials and cross-sectional surveys reported reductions in B12ranging from 9 to 52% (7–16). Although classical B12 deficiency presents with clinical symptoms such as anemia, peripheral neuropathy, depression, and cognitive impairment, these symptoms are usually absent in those with biochemical B12 deficiency (17).

Several researchers have made recommendations to screen those with type 2 diabetes on metformin for serum B12 levels (6,7,14–16,18–21). However, no formal recommendations have been provided by the medical community or the U.S. Prevention Services Task Force. High-dose B12 injection therapy has been successfully used to correct the metformin-induced decline in serum B12 (15,21,22). The use of B12supplements among those with type 2 diabetes on metformin in a nationally representative sample and their potentially protective effect against biochemical B12 deficiency has not been reported. It is therefore the aim of the current study to use the nationally representative National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) population to determine the prevalence of biochemical B12deficiency among those with type 2 diabetes ≥50 years of age taking metformin compared with those with type 2 diabetes not taking metformin and those without diabetes, and to explore how these relationships are modified by B12 supplement consumption.

Design overview

NHANES is a nationally representative sample of the noninstitutionalized U.S. population with targeted oversampling of U.S. adults ≥60 years of age, African Americans, and Hispanics. Details of these surveys have been described elsewhere (23). All participants gave written informed consent, and the survey protocol was approved by a human subjects review board.

Setting and participants

Our study included adults ≥50 years of age from NHANES 1999–2006. Participants with positive HIV antibody test results, high creatinine levels (>1.7 mg/dL for men and >1.5 mg/dL for women), and prescription B12 injections were excluded from the analysis. Participants who reported having prediabetes or borderline diabetes (n = 226) were removed because they could not be definitively grouped as having or not having type 2 diabetes. We also excluded pregnant women, those with type 1 diabetes, and those without diabetes taking metformin. Based on clinical aspects described by the American Diabetes Association and previous work in NHANES, those who were diagnosed before the age of 30 and began insulin therapy within 1 year of diagnosis were classified as having type 1 diabetes (24,25). Type 2 diabetes status in adults was dichotomized as yes/no. Participants who reported receiving a physician’s diagnosis after age 30 (excluding gestational diabetes) and did not initiate insulin therapy within 1 year of diagnosis were classified as having type 2 diabetes.

Outcomes and follow-up

The primary outcome was biochemical B12 deficiency determined by serum B12 concentrations. Serum B12 levels were quantified using the Quantaphase II folate/vitamin B12 radioassay kit from Bio-Rad Laboratories (Hercules, CA). We defined biochemical B12 deficiency as serum levels ≤148 pmol/L, borderline deficiency as serum B12 >148 to ≤221 pmol/L, and normal as >221 pmol/L (26).

The main exposure of interest was metformin use. Using data collected in the prescription medicine questionnaire, those with type 2 diabetes were classified as currently using metformin therapy (alone or in combination therapy) versus those not currently using metformin. Length of metformin therapy was used to assess the relationship between duration of metformin therapy and biochemical B12 deficiency. In the final analysis, two control groups were used to allow the comparison of those with type 2 diabetes taking metformin with those with type 2 diabetes not taking metformin and those without diabetes.

To determine whether the association between metformin and biochemical B12 deficiency is modified by supplemental B12 intake, data from the dietary supplement questionnaire were used. Information regarding the dose and frequency was used to calculate average daily supplemental B12 intake. We categorized supplemental B12 intake as 0 μg (no B12 containing supplement), >0–6 μg, >6–25 μg, and >25 μg. The lower intake group, >0–6 μg, includes 6 μg, the amount of vitamin B12 typically found in over-the-counter multivitamins, and 2.4 μg, the daily amount the IOM recommends for all adults ≥50 years of age to consume through supplements or fortified food (1). The next group, >6–25 μg, includes 25 μg, the amount available in many multivitamins marketed toward senior adults. The highest group contains the amount found in high-dose B-vitamin supplements.

 

In the final analysis, there were 575 U.S. adults ≥50 years of age with type 2 diabetes using metformin, 1,046 with type 2 diabetes not using metformin, and 6,867 without diabetes. The demographic and biological characteristics of the groups are shown in Table 1. Among metformin users, mean age was 63.4 ± 0.5 years, 50.3% were male, 66.7% were non-Hispanic white, and 40.7% used a supplement containing B12. The median duration of metformin use was 5 years. Compared with those with type 2 diabetes not taking metformin, metformin users were younger (P < 0.0001), reported a lower prevalence of insulin use (P < 0.001), and had a shorter duration of diabetes (P = 0.0207). Compared with those without diabetes, metformin users had a higher proportion of nonwhite racial groups (P< 0.0001), a higher proportion of obesity (P < 0.0001), a lower prevalence of macrocytosis (P = 0.0017), a lower prevalence of supplemental folic acid use (P = 0.0069), a lower prevalence of supplemental vitamin B12 use (P = 0.0180), and a lower prevalence of calcium supplement use (P = 0.0002). There was a twofold difference in the prevalence of anemia among those with type 2 diabetes versus those without, and no difference between the groups with diabetes.    

Association of Biochemical B12Deficiency With Metformin Therapy and Vitamin B12Supplements

Demographic and biological characteristics of U.S. adults ≥50 years of age: NHANES 1999–2006

Table 1
The geometric mean serum B12 concentration among those with type 2 diabetes taking metformin was 317.5 pmol/L. This was significantly lower than the geometric mean concentration in those with type 2 diabetes not taking metformin (386.7 pmol/L; P = 0.0116) and those without diabetes (350.8 pmol/L; P = 0.0011). As seen in Fig. 1, the weighted prevalence of biochemical B12 deficiency adjusted for age, race, and sex was 5.8% for those with type 2 diabetes taking metformin, 2.2% for those with type 2 diabetes not taking metformin (P = 0.0002), and 3.3% for those without diabetes (P = 0.0026). Among the three aforementioned groups, borderline deficiency was present in 16.2, 5.5, and 8.8%, respectively (P < 0.0001). Applying the Fleiss formula for calculating attributable risk from cross-sectional data (27), among all of the cases of biochemical B12 deficiency, 3.5% of the cases were attributable to metformin use; and among those with diabetes, 41% of the deficient cases were attributable to metformin use. When the prevalence of biochemical B12 deficiency among those with diabetes taking metformin was analyzed by duration of metformin therapy, there was no notable increase in the prevalence of biochemical B12 deficiency as the duration of metformin use increased. The prevalence of biochemical B12 deficiency was 4.1% among those taking metformin <1 year, 6.3% among those taking metformin ≥1–3 years, 4.1% among those taking metformin >3–10 years, and 8.1% among those taking metformin >10 years (P = 0.3219 for <1 year vs. >10 years). Similarly, there was no clear increase in the prevalence of borderline deficiency as the duration of metformin use increased (15.9% among those taking metformin >10 years vs. 11.4% among those taking metformin <1 year; P = 0.4365).
Figure 1
Weighted prevalence of biochemical B12 deficiency and borderline deficiency adjusted for age, race, and sex in U.S. adults ≥50 years of age: NHANES 1999–2006. Black bars are those with type 2 diabetes on metformin, gray bars are those with type 2 diabetes not on metformin, and the white bars are those without diabetes. *P = 0.0002 vs. type 2 diabetes on metformin. †P < 0.0001 vs. type 2 diabetes on metformin. ‡P = 0.0026 vs. type 2 diabetes on metformin.
Table 2 presents a stratified analysis of the weighted prevalence of biochemical B12 deficiency and borderline deficiency by B12supplement use. For those without diabetes, B12 supplement use was associated with an ∼66.7% lower prevalence of both biochemical B12deficiency (4.8 vs. 1.6%; P < 0.0001) and borderline deficiency (16.6 vs. 5.5%; P < 0.0001). A decrease in the prevalence of biochemical B12deficiency was seen at all levels of supplemental B12 intake compared with nonusers of supplements. Among those with type 2 diabetes taking metformin, supplement use was not associated with a decrease in the prevalence of either biochemical B12 deficiency (5.6 vs. 5.3%; P= 0.9137) or borderline deficiency (15.5 vs. 8.8%; P = 0.0826). Among the metformin users who also used supplements, those who consumed >0–6 μg of B12 had a prevalence of biochemical B12 deficiency of 14.1%. However, consumption of a supplement containing >6 μg of B12 was associated with a prevalence of biochemical B12 deficiency of 1.8% (P = 0.0273 for linear trend). Similar trends were seen in the association of supplemental B12 intake and the prevalence of borderline deficiency. For those with type 2 diabetes not taking metformin, supplement use was also not associated with a decrease in the prevalence of biochemical B12 deficiency (2.1 vs. 2.0%; P = 0.9568) but was associated with a 54% reduction in the prevalence of borderline deficiency (7.8 vs. 3.4%; P = 0.0057 for linear trend).
Table 2
Comparison of average daily B12 supplement intake by weighted prevalence of biochemical B12 deficiency (serum B12 ≤148 pmol/L) and borderline deficiency (serum B12 >148 to ≤221 pmol/L) among U.S. adults ≥50 years of age: NHANES 1999–2006.
Table 3 demonstrates the association of various risk factors with biochemical B12 deficiency. Metformin therapy was associated with biochemical B12 deficiency (odds ratio [OR] 2.89; 95% CI 1.33–6.28) and borderline deficiency (OR 2.32; 95% CI 1.31–4.12) in a crude model (results not shown). After adjusting for age, BMI, and insulin and supplement use, metformin maintained a significant association with biochemical B12 deficiency (OR 2.92; 95% CI 1.28–6.66) and borderline deficiency (OR 2.16; 95% CI 1.22–3.85). Similar to Table 2, B12 supplements were protective against borderline (OR 0.43; 95% CI 0.23–0.81), but not biochemical, B12 deficiency (OR 0.76; 95% CI 0.34–1.70) among those with type 2 diabetes. Among those without diabetes, B12 supplement use was ∼70% protective against biochemical B12 deficiency (OR 0.26; 95% CI 0.17–0.38) and borderline deficiency (OR 0.27; 95% CI 0.21–0.35).
Table 3
Polytomous logistic regression for potential risk factors of biochemical B12 deficiency and borderline deficiency among U.S. adults ≥50 years of age: NHANES 1999–2006, OR (95% CI)

The IOM has highlighted the detection and diagnosis of B12 deficiency as a high-priority topic for research (1). Our results suggest several findings that add to the complexity and importance of B12 research and its relation to diabetes, and offer new insight into the benefits of B12 supplements. Our data confirm the relationship between metformin and reduced serum B12 levels beyond the background prevalence of biochemical B12 deficiency. Our data demonstrate that an intake of >0–6 μg of B12, which includes the dose most commonly found in over-the-counter multivitamins, was associated with a two-thirds reduction of biochemical B12 deficiency and borderline deficiency among adults without diabetes. This relationship has been previously reported with NHANES and Framingham population data (4,29). In contrast, we did not find that >0–6 μg of B12 was associated with a decrease in the prevalence of biochemical B12 deficiency or borderline deficiency among adults with type 2 diabetes taking metformin. This observation suggests that metformin reduces serum B12 by a mechanism that is additive to or different from the mechanism in older adults. It is also possible that metformin may exacerbate the deficiency among older adults with low serum B12. Our sample size was too small to determine which amount >6 μg was associated with maximum protection, but we did find a dose-response trend.

We were surprised to find that those with type 2 diabetes not using metformin had the lowest prevalence of biochemical B12 deficiency. It is possible that these individuals may seek medical care more frequently than the general population and therefore are being treated for their biochemical B12 deficiency. Or perhaps, because this population had a longer duration of diabetes and a higher proportion of insulin users compared with metformin users, they have been switched from metformin to other diabetic treatments due to low serum B12 concentrations or uncontrolled glucose levels and these new treatments may increase serum B12 concentrations. Despite the observed effects of metformin on serum B12 levels, it remains unclear whether or not this reduction is a public health concern. With lifetime risks of diabetes estimated to be one in three and with metformin being a first-line intervention, it is important to increase our understanding of the effects of oral vitamin B12 on metformin-associated biochemical deficiency (20,21).

The strengths of this study include its nationally representative, population-based sample, its detailed information on supplement usage, and its relevant biochemical markers. This is the first study to use a nationally representative sample to examine the association between serum B12 concentration, diabetes status, and metformin use as well as examine how this relationship may be modified by vitamin B12 supplementation. The data available regarding supplement usage provided specific information regarding dose and frequency. This aspect of NHANES allowed us to observe the dose-response relationship in Table 2 and to compare it within our three study groups.

This study is also subject to limitations. First, NHANES is a cross-sectional survey and it cannot assess time as a factor, and therefore the results are associations and not causal relationships. A second limitation arises in our definition of biochemical B12 deficiency. There is no general consensus on how to define normal versus low serum B12levels. Some researchers include the functional biomarker methylmalonic acid (MMA) in the definition, but this has yet to be agreed upon (30–34). Recently, an NHANES roundtable discussion suggested that definitions of biochemical B12 deficiency should incorporate one biomarker (serum B12 or holotranscobalamin) and one functional biomarker (MMA or total homocysteine) to address problems with sensitivity and specificity of the individual biomarkers. However, they also cited a need for more research on how the biomarkers are related in the general population to prevent misclassification (34). MMA was only measured for six of our survey years; one-third of participants in our final analysis were missing serum MMA levels. Moreover, it has recently been reported that MMA values are significantly greater among the elderly with diabetes as compared with the elderly without diabetes even when controlling for serum B12 concentrations and age, suggesting that having diabetes may independently increase the levels of MMA (35). This unique property of MMA in elderly adults with diabetes makes it unsuitable as part of a definition of biochemical B12 deficiency in our specific population groups. Our study may also be subject to misclassification bias. NHANES does not differentiate between diabetes types 1 and 2 in the surveys; our definition may not capture adults with type 2 diabetes exclusively. Additionally, we used responses to the question “Have you received a physician’s diagnosis of diabetes” to categorize participants as having or not having diabetes. Therefore, we failed to capture undiagnosed diabetes. Finally, we could only assess current metformin use. We cannot determine if nonmetformin users have ever used metformin or if they were not using it at the time of the survey.

Our data demonstrate several important conclusions. First, there is a clear association between metformin and biochemical B12 deficiency among adults with type 2 diabetes. This analysis shows that 6 μg of B12 offered in most multivitamins is associated with two-thirds reduction in biochemical B12 deficiency in the general population, and that this same dose is not associated with protection against biochemical B12 deficiency among those with type 2 diabetes taking metformin. Our results have public health and clinical implications by suggesting that neither 2.4 μg, the current IOM recommendation for daily B12 intake, nor 6 μg, the amount found in most multivitamins, is sufficient for those with type 2 diabetes taking metformin.

This analysis suggests a need for further research. One research design would be to identify those with biochemical B12 deficiency and randomize them to receive various doses of supplemental B12chronically and then evaluate any improvement in serum B12concentrations and/or clinical outcomes. Another design would use existing cohorts to determine clinical outcomes associated with biochemical B12 deficiency and how they are affected by B12supplements at various doses. Given that a significant proportion of the population ≥50 years of age have biochemical B12 deficiency and that those with diabetes taking metformin have an even higher proportion of biochemical B12 deficiency, we suggest that support for further research is a reasonable priority.

 

  1. ↵
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Discussion:
One research design would be to identify those with biochemical B12 deficiency and randomize them to receive various doses of supplemental B12chronically and then evaluate any improvement in serum B12concentrations and/or clinical outcomes. Another design would use existing cohorts to determine clinical outcomes associated with biochemical B12 deficiency and how they are affected by B12supplements at various doses.
This is of considerable interest.  As far as I can see, there is insufficient data presented to discern all of the variables entangled.  In a study of 8000 hemograms several years ago, it was of some interest that there were a large percentage of patients who were over age 75 years having a MCV of 94 – 100, not considered indicative of macrocytic anemia.  It would have been interesting to explore that set of the data further.
UPDATED 3/17/2020
 2019 May 7;11(5). pii: E1020. doi: 10.3390/nu11051020.

Monitoring Vitamin B12 in Women Treated with Metformin for Primary Prevention of Breast Cancer and Age-Related Chronic Diseases.

Mastroianni A1, Ciniselli CM2, Panella R3, Macciotta A4, Cavalleri A5, Venturelli E6, Taverna F7, Mazzocchi A8, Bruno E9, Muti P10, Berrino F11, Verderio P12, Morelli D13, Pasanisi P14.

Abstract

Metformin (MET) is currently being used in several trials for cancer prevention or treatment in non-diabetics. However, long-term MET use in diabetics is associated with lower serum levels of total vitamin B12. In a pilot randomized controlled trial of the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) and MET, whose participants were characterized by different components of metabolic syndrome, we tested the effect of MET on serum levels of B12, holo transcobalamin II (holo-TC-II), and methylmalonic acid (MMA). The study was conducted on 165 women receiving MET or placebo for three years. Results of the study indicate a significant overall reduction in both serum total B12 and holo-TC-II levels according with MET-treatment. In particular, in the MET group 26 of 81 patients and 10 of the 84 placebo-treated subjects had B12 below the normal threshold (<221 pmol/L) at the end of the study. Considering jointly all B12, Holo-TC-II, and MMA, 13 of the 165 subjects (10 MET and 3 placebo-treated) had at least two deficits in the biochemical parameters at the end of the study, without reporting clinical signs. Although our results do not affect whether women remain in the trial, B12 monitoring for MET-treated individuals should be implemented.

ntroduction

Metformin (MET) is the first-line treatment for type-2 diabetes and has been used for decades to treat this chronic condition [1]. Given its favorable effects on glycemic control, weight patterns, insulin requirements, and cardiovascular outcomes, MET has been recently proposed in addition to lifestyle interventions to reduce metabolic syndrome (MS) and age-related chronic diseases [2]. Observational studies have also suggested that diabetic patients treated with MET had a significantly lower risk of developing cancer or lower cancer mortality than those untreated or treated with other drugs [3,4]. For this reason, a number of clinical trials are in progress in different solid cancers.
One of the limitations in implementing long-term use of MET to prevent chronic conditions in healthy subjects relates to its potential lowering effect on vitamin B12 (B12). The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of three years of MET treatment in a randomized, controlled trial considering both B12 levels and biomarkers of its metabolism and biological effectiveness.
Cobalamin, also known as B12, is a water-soluble, cobalt-containing vitamin. All forms of B12 are converted intracellularly into adenosyl-Cbl and methylcobalamin—the biologically active forms at the cellular level [5]. Vitamin B12 is a vital cofactor of two enzymes: methionine synthase and L-methyl-malonyl-coenzyme. A mutase in intracellular enzymatic reactions related to DNA synthesis, as well as in amino and fatty acid metabolism. Vitamin B12, under the catalysis of the enzyme l-methyl-malonyl-CoA mutase, synthesizes succinyl-CoA from methylmalonyl-CoA in the mitochondria. Deficiency of B12, thus results in elevated methylmalonic acid (MMA) levels.
Dietary B12 is normally bound to proteins. Food-bound B12 is released in the stomach under the effect of gastric acid and pepsin. The free vitamin is then bound to an R-binder, a glycoprotein in gastric fluid and saliva that protects B12 from the highly acidic stomach environment. Pancreatic proteases degrade R-binder in the duodenum and liberate B12; finally, the free vitamin is then bound by the intrinsic factor (IF)—a glycosylated protein secreted by gastric parietal cells—forming an IF-B12 complex [6]. The IF resists proteolysis and serves as a carrier for B12 to the terminal ileum where the IF-B12 complex undergoes receptor (cubilin)-mediated endocytosis [7]. The vitamin then appears in circulation bound to holo-transcobalamin-I (holo-TC-I), holo-transcobalamin-II (holo-TC-II), and holo-transcobalamin-III (holo-TC-III). It is estimated that 20–30% of the total circulating B12 is bound to holo-TC-II and only this form is available to the cells [7]. Holo-TC-I binds 70–80% of circulating B12, preventing the loss of the free unneeded portion [6]. Vitamin B12 is stored mainly in the liver and kidneys.
Many mechanisms have been proposed to explain how MET interferes with the absorption of B12: diminished absorption due to changes in bacterial flora, interference with intestinal absorption of the IF–B12 complex (and)/or alterations in IF levels. The most widely accepted current mechanism suggests that MET antagonizes the calcium cation and interferes with the calcium-dependent IF–B12 complex binding to the ileal cubilin receptor [8,9]. The recognition and treatment of B12 deficiency is important because it is a cause of bone marrow failure, macrocytic anemia, and irreversible neuropathy [10].
In general, previous studies on diabetics have observed a reduction in serum levels of B12 after both short- and long-term MET treatment [1]. A recent review on observational studies showed significantly lower levels of B12 and an increased risk of borderline or frank B12 deficiency in patients on MET than not on MET [1]. The meta-analysis of four trials (only one double-blind) found a significant overall mean B12 reducing effect of MET after six weeks to three months of use [1]. A secondary analysis (13 years after randomization) of the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study, which randomized over 3000 persons at high risk for type 2 diabetes to MET or placebo, showed a 13% increase in the risk of B12 deficiency per year of total MET use [3]. In this study, B12 levels were measured from samples obtained in years 1 and 9. Stored serum samples from other time points, including baseline, were not available, and potentially informative red blood cell indices that might have demonstrated the macrocytic anemia, typical of B12 deficiency, were not recorded [3]. The HOME (Hyperinsulinaemia: the Outcome of its Metabolic Effects) study, a large randomized controlled trial investigating the long-term effects of MET versus placebo in patients with type 2 diabetes treated with insulin, showed that the addition of MET improved glycemic control, reduced insulin requirements, prevented weight gain but lowered serum B12 over time, and raised serum homocysteine, suggesting tissue B12 deficiency [4]. A recent analysis of 277 diabetics from the same trial showed that serum levels of MMA, the specific biomarker for tissue B12 deficiency [5], were significantly higher in people treated with MET than those receiving placebo after four years (on average) [4].
The risk of MET-associated B12 deficiency may be higher in older individuals and those with poor dietary habits. Prospective studies have found negative associations between obesity and B12 in numerous ethnicities [11,12]. An energy-dense but micronutrient-insufficient diet consumed by individuals who are overweight or obese might explain this [12]. Furthermore, obesity is associated with low-grade inflammation and these physiological changes have been shown to be associated, in several studies, with elevated C-reactive protein and homocysteine and with low concentrations of B12 and other vitamins [13,14].
As part of a pilot randomized controlled trial of the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) and MET for primary prevention of breast cancer and other chronic age-related diseases in healthy women with tracts of MS [15] we tested the effect of MET on serum levels of B12, holo-TC-II, and MMA.

Other articles of note on the Mediterranean Diet in this Online Open Access Scientific Journal Include

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Dopamine-β-Hydroxylase Functional Variants

Posted in Biochemical pathways, Cell Biology, Endocrine Diseases, Enzyme Induction, Enzymes and isoenzymes, Gene Regulation, Genomic Expression, Metabolism, Pharmaceutical Discovery, Population genetics, Proteins, Proteomics, Stress Disorders, Translational Science, tagged , , , on March 10, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Dopamine-β-Hydroxylase Functional Variants

Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

 

 

Deep sequencing identifies novel regulatory variants in the distal promoter region of the dopamine-β-hydroxylase gene.

Punchaichira TJ1, Prasad S, Deshpande SN, Thelma BK.
Pharmacogenet Genomics. 2016 Mar 9     http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26959714

OBJECTIVE:

Dopamine-β-hydroxylase (DBH), an enzyme that converts dopamine into norepinephrine, is a drug target in cardiovascular and neuropsychiatric disorders. We aimed to identify functional variants in this gene by deep sequencing and enzyme phenotyping in an Indian cohort.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Targeted resequencing of 12 exons and 10 kb upstream sequences of DBH in healthy volunteers (n=50) was performed using the Ion Personal Genome Machine System. Enzyme quantity and activity in their sera samples were determined by ELISA and ultra performance liquid chromatography, respectively. The association of markers with phenotypes was determined using Matrix eQTL. Global P-values for haplotypes generated using UNPHASED 3.1.5 were graphed using GrASP v.082 beta.

RESULTS:

Of the 49 variants identified, nine were novel (minor allele frequency≥0.01). Though individual markers associated with enzyme quantity did not withstand multiple corrections, a novel distal promoter block driven by rs113249250 (global P=1.5×10) was associated. Of the nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with enzyme activity, rs3025369, rs1076151 and rs1611115, all from the upstream region, withstood false discovery rate correction (false discovery rate=0.03, 0.03 and 2.9×10, respectively). Conditioning for rs1611115 identified rs1989787 also to affect activity. Importantly, we report an association of a novel haplotype block distal to rs1076151 driven by rs3025369 (global P=8.9×10) with enzyme activity. This regulatory SNP explained 4.9% of the total 46.1% of variance in DBH activity caused by associated SNPs.

CONCLUSION:

This first study combining deep sequencing and enzyme phenotyping identified yet another regulatory SNP suggesting that regulatory variants may be central in the physiological or metabolic role of this gene of therapeutic and pharmacological relevance.

 

 

Correlation of plasma dopamine beta-hydroxylase activity with polymorphisms in DBH gene: a study on Eastern Indian population.

Bhaduri N1, Mukhopadhyay K.
Cell Mol Neurobiol. 2008 May;28(3):343-50.    http://dx.doi.org:/10.1007/s10571-007-9256-8
Plasma dopamine beta-hydroxylase activity (plDbetaH) is tightly regulated by the DBH gene and several genetic polymorphisms have been found to independently exert their influence. In the present investigation, association of four DBH polymorphisms, DBH-STR, rs1611115, rs1108580, and rs2519152 with plDbetaH was examined in blood samples from 100 unrelated individuals belonging to the state of West Bengal, Eastern India. Genotypes obtained after PCR amplification and restriction digestion were used for statistical analyses. plDbetaH was measured using a photometric assay and its correlation with the genetic polymorphisms was analyzed using analysis of variance and linear regression. Moderate linkage disequilibrium (LD) was observed between DBH-STR and rs1611115, while rs1108580 and rs2519152 were in strong LD. ‘T’ allele of rs1611115 showed strong negative correlation with plDbetaH, whereas DBH-STR, rs1108580 and rs2519152 had no major effect. Four haplotypes showed significant influence on plDbetaH. This is the first report on the effect of genetic polymorphisms on plDbetaH from the Indian sub-continent. rs1611115 was the only polymorphism that showed substantial control over plDbetaH. Other polymorphisms which did not show individual effects could possibly be part of larger haplotype blocks that carry the functional polymorphisms controlling plDbetaH.
Polymorphisms and low plasma activity of dopamine-beta-hydroxylase in ADHD children.
Kopecková M1, Paclt I, Goetz P.
Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2006 Dec;27(6):748-54     http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17187001
Attention-deficit Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a multifactorial disorder clinically characterized by inattentiveness, impulsivity and hyperactivity. The occurrence of this disorder is between 3 and 6% of the children population, with boys predominating over girls at a ratio of 3:1 or more. The research of some candidate genes (DRD4, DAT, DRD5, DBH, 5HTT, HTR1B and SNAP25) brought consistent results confirming the heredity of ADHD syndromes. Dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (DBH) is an enzyme responsible for the conversion of dopamine into noradrenaline. Alteration of the dopamine/noradrenaline levels can result in hyperactivity. The DBH protein is released in response to stimulation. DBH activity, derived largely from sympathetic nerves, can be measured in human plasma. Patients with ADHD showed decreased activities of DBH in serum and urine. Low DBH levels correlate indirectly with the seriousness of the hyperkinetic syndrome in children [19,20]. In the DBH gene, the G444A, G910T, C1603T, C1912T, C-1021T, 5 -ins/del and TaqI polymorphisms occur frequently and may affect the function of gene products or modify gene expression and thus influence the progression of ADHD. This article reviews the DBH itself and polymorphisms in the DBH gene that influence the DBH activity in the serum and the CSF level of DBH. All those are evaluated in connection with ADHD.
Candidate gene studies of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
Faraone SV1, Khan SA.
J Clin Psychiatry. 2006;67 Suppl 8:13-20.   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16961425
A growing body of behavioral and molecular genetics literature has indicated that the development of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be attributed to both genetic and environmental factors. Family, twin, and adoption studies provide compelling evidence that genes play a strong role in mediating susceptibility to ADHD. Molecular genetic studies suggest that the genetic architecture of ADHD is complex, while the handful of genome-wide scans conducted thus far is not conclusive. In contrast, the many candidate gene studies of ADHD have produced substantial evidence implicating several genes in the etiology of the disorder. For the 8 genes for which the same variant has been studied in 3 or more case-control or family-based studies, 7 show statistically significant evidence of association with ADHD based on pooled odds ratios across studies: the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4), the dopamine D5 receptor gene (DRD5), the dopamine transporter gene (DAT), the dopamine beta-hydroxylase gene (DBH), the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTT), the serotonin receptor 1B gene (HTR1B), and the synaptosomal-associated protein 25 gene (SNAP25). Recent pharmacogenetic studies have correlated treatment nonresponse with particular gene markers, while preclinical studies have increased our understanding of gene expression paradigms and potential analogs for human trials. This literature review discusses the relevance and implications of genetic associations with ADHD for clinical practice and future research
Lack of significant association between -1021C–>T polymorphism in the dopamine beta hydroxylase gene and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Bhaduri N1, Mukhopadhyay K
Neurosci Lett. 2006 Jul 10;402(1-2):12-6     http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16616989
Recent trends in medications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) suggest that norepinephrine (NE) deficiency may contribute to the disease etiology. Dopamine beta hydroxylase (DBH) is the key enzyme which converts dopamine to NE and since DBH gene is considered a major quantitative trait locus for plasma DBH activity, genetic polymorphism may lead to altered NE neurotransmission. Several polymorphisms including a 5′ flanking -1021C–>T polymorphism, was reported to be associated with changed DBH activity and an association between -1021C–>T polymorphism with ADHD was observed in Han Chinese children. We have carried out family-based studies with three polymorphisms in the DBH gene, -1021C–>T polymorphism, exon 2*444g/a and intron 5 TaqI RFLP, to explore their association with Indian ADHD cases. Allele and genotype frequency of these polymorphisms in ADHD cases were compared with that of their parents and a control group. Haplotypes obtained were analyzed for linkage disequilibrium (LD). Haplotype-based haplotype relative risk analysis and transmission disequilibrium test showed lack of significant association between transmission of the polymorphisms and ADHD. A haplotype comprising of allele 1 of all polymorphisms showed a slight positive trend towards transmission from parents to ADHD probands. Strong LD was observed between *444g/a and TaqI RFLP in all the groups. However, low D’ values and corresponding log of odds scores in the control group as compared to the ADHD families indicated that, the incidence of the two polymorphisms being transmitted together could be higher in ADHD families.
Association of the dopamine beta hydroxylase gene with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: genetic analysis of the Milwaukee longitudinal study.
Smith KM1, Daly M, Fischer M, Yiannoutsos CT, Bauer L, Barkley R, Navia BA.
Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 2003 May 15;119B(1):77-85.    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12707943
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a highly heritable and common disorder that partly reflects disturbed dopaminergic function in the brain. Recent genetic studies have shown that candidate genes involved in dopamine signaling and metabolism contribute to ADHD susceptibility. We have initiated genetic studies in a unique cohort of 158 ADHD and 81 control adult subjects who have been followed longitudinally since childhood in the Milwaukee study of ADHD. From this cohort, genetic analysis was performed in 105 Caucasian subjects with ADHD and 68 age and ethnicity-matched controls for the DRD4 exon 3 VNTR, the SLC6A3 (DAT1) 3′ UTR VNTR, dopamine beta hydroxylase (DBH) TaqI A polymorphism, and the DBH GT microsatellite repeat polymorphism that has been quantitatively associated with serum levels of DBH activity, but not previously studied in ADHD. Results indicate a significant association between the DBH TaqI A1 allele and ADHD (P = 0.018) with a relative risk of 1.33. The DBH GT repeat 4 allele, which is associated with high serum levels of DBH, occurred more frequently in the ADHD group than controls, but the difference did not reach statistical significance. Associations were not found with the SLC6A3 10 repeat or DRD4 7 repeat alleles. These results indicate that the DBH TaqI A allele, or another polymorphism in linkage disequilibrium with this allele, may confer increased susceptibility towards ADHD.
Polymorphisms of the dopamine transporter gene: influence on response to methylphenidate in attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.
Roman T1, Rohde LA, Hutz MH.
Am J Pharmacogenomics. 2004;4(2):83-92.   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15059031
Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a very common and heterogeneous childhood-onset psychiatric disorder, affecting between 3% and 5% of school age children worldwide. Although the neurobiology of ADHD is not completely understood, imbalances in both dopaminergic and noradrenergic systems have been implicated in the origin and persistence of core symptoms, which include inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. The role of a genetic component in its etiology is strongly supported by genetic studies, and several investigations have suggested that the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1; SLC6A3 locus) may be a small-effect susceptibility gene for ADHD. Stimulant medication has a well-documented efficacy in reducing ADHD symptoms. Methylphenidate, the most prescribed stimulant, seems to act mainly by inhibiting the dopamine transporter protein and dopamine reuptake. In fact, its effect is probably related to an increase in extracellular levels of dopamine, especially in brain regions enriched in this protein (i.e. striatum). It is also important to note that dopamine transporter densities seem to be particularly elevated in the brain of ADHD patients, decreasing after treatment with methylphenidate. Altogether, these observations suggest that the dopamine transporter does play a major role in ADHD. Among the several polymorphisms already described in the SLC6A3 locus, a 40 bp variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) polymorphism has been extensively investigated in association studies with ADHD. Although there are some negative results, the findings from these reports indicate the allele with ten copies of the 40 bp sequence (10-repeat allele) as the risk allele for ADHD. Some investigations have suggested that this polymorphism can be implicated in dopamine transporter gene expression in vitro and dopamine transporter density in vivo, even though it is located in a non-coding region of the SLC6A3 locus. Despite all these data, few studies have addressed the relationship between genetic markers (specifically the VNTR) at the SLC6A3 locus and response to methylphenidate in ADHD patients. A significant effect of the 40 bp VNTR on response to methylphenidate has been detected in most of these reports. However, the findings are inconsistent regarding both the allele (or genotype) involved and the direction of this influence (better or worse response). Thus, further investigations are required to determine if genetic variation due to the VNTR in the dopamine transporter gene is able to predict different levels of clinical response and palatability to methylphenidate in patients with ADHD, and how this information would be useful in clinical practice.
Pharmacogenomics in psychiatry: the relevance of receptor and transporter polymorphisms.
Reynolds GP1, McGowan OO, Dalton CF.
Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2014 Apr;77(4):654-72.    http://dx.doi.org:/10.1111/bcp.12312
The treatment of severe mental illness, and of psychiatric disorders in general, is limited in its efficacy and tolerability. There appear to be substantial interindividual differences in response to psychiatric drug treatments that are generally far greater than the differences between individual drugs; likewise, the occurrence of adverse effects also varies profoundly between individuals. These differences are thought to reflect, at least in part, genetic variability. The action of psychiatric drugs primarily involves effects on synaptic neurotransmission; the genes for neurotransmitter receptors and transporters have provided strong candidates in pharmacogenetic research in psychiatry. This paper reviews some aspects of the pharmacogenetics of neurotransmitter receptors and transporters in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. A focus on serotonin, catecholamines and amino acid transmitter systems reflects the direction of research efforts, while relevant results from some genome-wide association studies are also presented. There are many inconsistencies, particularly between candidate gene and genome-wide association studies. However, some consistency is seen in candidate gene studies supporting established pharmacological mechanisms of antipsychotic and antidepressant response with associations of functional genetic polymorphisms in, respectively, the dopamine D2 receptor and serotonin transporter and receptors. More recently identified effects of genes related to amino acid neurotransmission on the outcome of treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar illness or depression reflect the growing understanding of the roles of glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid dysfunction in severe mental illness. A complete understanding of psychiatric pharmacogenomics will also need to take into account epigenetic factors, such as DNA methylation, that influence individual responses to drugs.
Pharmacogenetics of psychotropic drug response.
Malhotra AK1, Murphy GM Jr, Kennedy JL.
Am J Psychiatry. 2004 May;161(5):780-96    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15121641http://dx.doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.161.5.780

OBJECTIVE:

Molecular genetic approaches provide a novel method of dissecting the heterogeneity of psychotropic drug response. These pharmacogenetic strategies offer the prospect of identifying biological predictors of psychotropic drug response and could provide the means of determining the molecular substrates of drug efficacy and drug-induced adverse events.

METHOD:

The authors discuss methods issues in executing pharmacogenetic studies, review the first generation of pharmacogenetic studies of psychotropic drug response, and consider future directions for this rapidly evolving field.

RESULTS:

Pharmacogenetics has been most commonly used in studies of antipsychotic drug efficacy, antidepressant drug response, and drug-induced adverse effects. Data from antipsychotic drug studies indicate that polymorphisms within the serotonin 2A and dopamine receptor 2 genes may influence drug efficacy in schizophrenia. Moreover, a growing body of data suggests a relationship between the serotonin transporter gene and clinical effects of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors used to treat depression. A significant relationship between genetic variation in the cytochrome P450 system and drug-induced adverse effects may exist for certain medications. Finally, a number of independent studies point to a significant effect of a dopamine D(3) receptor polymorphism on susceptibility to tardive dyskinesia.

CONCLUSIONS:

Initial research into the pharmacogenetics of psychotropic drug response suggests that specific genes may influence phenotypes associated with psychotropic drug administration. These results remain preliminary and will require further replication and validation. New developments in molecular biology, human genomic information, statistical methods, and bioinformatics are ongoing and could pave the way for the next generation of pharmacogenetic studies in psychiatry.

OBJECTIVE: Molecular genetic approaches provide a novel method of dissecting the heterogeneity of psychotropic drug response. These pharmacogenetic strategies offer the prospect of identifying biological predictors of psychotropic drug response and could provide the means of determining the molecular substrates of drug efficacy and drug-induced adverse events. METHOD: The authors discuss methods issues in executing pharmacogenetic studies, review the first generation of pharmacogenetic studies of psychotropic drug response, and consider future directions for this rapidly evolving field. RESULTS: Pharmacogenetics has been most commonly used in studies of antipsychotic drug efficacy, antidepressant drug response, and drug-induced adverse effects. Data from antipsychotic drug studies indicate that polymorphisms within the serotonin 2A and dopamine receptor 2 genes may influence drug efficacy in schizophrenia. Moreover, a growing body of data suggests a relationship between the serotonin transporter gene and clinical effects of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors used to treat depression. A significant relationship between genetic variation in the cytochrome P450 system and drug-induced adverse effects may exist for certain medications. Finally, a number of independent studies point to a significant effect of a dopamine D3 receptor polymorphism on susceptibility to tardive dyskinesia. CONCLUSIONS: Initial research into the pharmacogenetics of psychotropic drug response suggests that specific genes may influence phenotypes associated with psychotropic drug administration. These results remain preliminary and will require further replication and validation. New developments in molecular biology, human genomic information, statistical methods, and bioinformatics are ongoing and could pave the way for the next generation of pharmacogenetic studies in psychiatry.

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Christopher J. Lynch, MD, PhD, the New Office of Nutrition Research, Director

Posted in Apoptosis, Autophagy, Bio Instrumentation in Experimental Life Sciences Research, Biological Networks, Gene Regulation and Evolution, Biomarkers & Medical Diagnostics, Cardiomyopathy, Cardiovascular Research, Cell Biology, Signaling & Cell Circuits, Chemical Biology and its relations to Metabolic Disease, Clinical & Translational, Clinical Diagnostics, Clinical Genomics, Curation, Cytokines, Diabetes Mellitus, Disease Biology, Drug Toxicity, Endocrine Diseases, Enzyme Induction, Epigenetics and Cardiovascular Risks, Gastroenterology, Heart Failure (HF), Myocardial metabolism, Myocardial ischemia, myocardial perfusion, Myocardial adenine nucleotide metabolism, Pre-Clinical Animal Model Development, tagged , , , on March 2, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Christopher J. Lynch, MD, PhD, the New Office of Nutrition Research, Director

Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

 

Christopher J. Lynch to direct Office of Nutrition Research

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

http://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/christopher-j-lynch-direct-office-nutrition-research

 

Christopher J. Lynch, Ph.D., has been named the new director of the Office of Nutrition Research (ONR) and chief of the Nutrition Research Branch within the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Lynch officially assumed his new roles on Feb. 21, 2016. NIDDK is part of the National Institutes of Health.

Lynch will facilitate nutrition research within NIDDK and — through ONR — across NIH, in part by forming and leading a trans-NIH strategic working group. He will also continue and extend ongoing efforts at NIDDK to collaborate widely to advance nutrition research.

“Dr. Lynch is a leader in the nutrition community and his expertise will be vital to guiding the NIH strategic plan for nutrition research,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.  “As NIH works to expand nutrition knowledge, Dr. Lynch’s understanding of the field will help identify information gaps and create a framework to support future discoveries to ultimately improve human health.”

NIH supports a broad range of nutrition research, including studies on the effects of nutrient and dietary intake on human growth and disease, genetic influences on human nutrition and metabolism and other scientific areas. ONR was established in August 2015 to help NIH develop a strategic plan to expand mission-specific nutrition research.

“Every day, we learn more about the links between diet and life-threatening diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, and how our gut microbiome may determine food preferences,” Lynch said. “These are exciting times for nutrition research and I’m delighted to help advance NIH-funded nutrition research.”

Lynch joins NIH after 27 years at Pennsylvania State University’s College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, most recently serving as professor and vice chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology. His research focuses on how what we eat and drink influences processes leading to obesity and type 2 diabetes. He has also investigated the relationship between antipsychotic therapy and obesity and type 2 diabetes and how gastric bypass surgery changes metabolism. Lynch also led efforts to increase nutrition education in the medical school curriculum.

“Nutrition research is a key to increasing our understanding of the causes of many diseases studied by NIDDK, including diabetes, obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, and others,” said NIDDK Director Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D. “With Dr. Lynch’s guidance, we hope to strengthen our research in nutrition, encourage innovative research through novel partnerships and help the public to better understand how nutrition influences their health.”

The NIDDK, a component of the NIH, conducts and supports research on diabetes and other endocrine and metabolic diseases; digestive diseases, nutrition and obesity; and kidney, urologic and hematologic diseases. Spanning the full spectrum of medicine and afflicting people of all ages and ethnic groups, these diseases encompass some of the most common, severe and disabling conditions affecting Americans. For more information about the NIDDK and its programs, visit www.niddk.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov

NARRATIVE:
Our laboratory is dedicated to developing cures for metabolic diseases like Obesity, Diabetes and MSUD. We have several projects:
Project 1: How Antipsychotic Drugs Exert Obesity and Metabolic Disease Side effects
Project 2: Impact of Branched Chain Amino Acid (BCAA) signaling and metabolism in obesity and diabetes.
Project 3: Adipose tissue transplant as a treatment for Maple Syrup Urine Disease.
Project 4: How Gastric Bypass Surgery Provides A Rapid Cure For Diabetes And Other Obesity Co-Morbidities Like Hypertension
Project 5: Novel Mechanism Of Action Of Cannabinoid Receptor 1 Blockers For Improvement Of Diabetes

Timeline

  1. Klingerman CM, Stipanovic ME, Hajnal A, Lynch CJ. Acute Metabolic Effects of Olanzapine Depend on Dose and Injection Site. Dose Response. 2015 Oct-Dec; 13(4):1559325815618915.

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  1. Lynch CJ, Kimball SR, Xu Y, Salzberg AC, Kawasawa YI. Global deletion of BCATm increases expression of skeletal muscle genes associated with protein turnover. Physiol Genomics. 2015 Nov; 47(11):569-80.

View in: PubMed

  1. Lynch CJ, Xu Y, Hajnal A, Salzberg AC, Kawasawa YI. RNA sequencing reveals a slow to fast muscle fiber type transition after olanzapine infusion in rats. PLoS One. 2015; 10(4):e0123966.

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  1. Shin AC, Fasshauer M, Filatova N, Grundell LA, Zielinski E, Zhou JY, Scherer T, Lindtner C, White PJ, Lapworth AL, Ilkayeva O, Knippschild U, Wolf AM, Scheja L, Grove KL, Smith RD, Qian WJ, Lynch CJ, Newgard CB, Buettner C. Brain Insulin Lowers Circulating BCAA Levels by Inducing Hepatic BCAA Catabolism. Cell Metab. 2014 Nov 4; 20(5):898-909.

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  1. Lynch CJ, Adams SH. Branched-chain amino acids in metabolic signalling and insulin resistance. Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2014 Dec; 10(12):723-36.

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  1. Olson KC, Chen G, Xu Y, Hajnal A, Lynch CJ. Alloisoleucine differentiates the branched-chain aminoacidemia of Zucker and dietary obese rats. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2014 May; 22(5):1212-5.

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  1. Zimmerman HA, Olson KC, Chen G, Lynch CJ. Adipose transplant for inborn errors of branched chain amino acid metabolism in mice. Mol Genet Metab. 2013 Aug; 109(4):345-53.

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  1. Olson KC, Chen G, Lynch CJ. Quantification of branched-chain keto acids in tissue by ultra fast liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Anal Biochem. 2013 Aug 15; 439(2):116-22.

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  1. She P, Olson KC, Kadota Y, Inukai A, Shimomura Y, Hoppel CL, Adams SH, Kawamata Y, Matsumoto H, Sakai R, Lang CH, Lynch CJ. Leucine and protein metabolism in obese Zucker rats. PLoS One. 2013; 8(3):e59443.

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  1. Lackey DE, Lynch CJ, Olson KC, Mostaedi R, Ali M, Smith WH, Karpe F, Humphreys S, Bedinger DH, Dunn TN, Thomas AP, Oort PJ, Kieffer DA, Amin R, Bettaieb A, Haj FG, Permana P, Anthony TG, Adams SH. Regulation of adipose branched-chain amino acid catabolism enzyme expression and cross-adipose amino acid flux in human obesity. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2013 Jun 1; 304(11):E1175-87.

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  1. Klingerman CM, Stipanovic ME, Bader M, Lynch CJ. Second-generation antipsychotics cause a rapid switch to fat oxidation that is required for survival in C57BL/6J mice. Schizophr Bull. 2014 Mar; 40(2):327-40.

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  1. Carr TD, DiGiovanni J, Lynch CJ, Shantz LM. Inhibition of mTOR suppresses UVB-induced keratinocyte proliferation and survival. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2012 Dec; 5(12):1394-404.

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  1. Lynch CJ, Zhou Q, Shyng SL, Heal DJ, Cheetham SC, Dickinson K, Gregory P, Firnges M, Nordheim U, Goshorn S, Reiche D, Turski L, Antel J. Some cannabinoid receptor ligands and their distomers are direct-acting openers of SUR1 K(ATP) channels. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2012 Mar 1; 302(5):E540-51.

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  1. Albaugh VL, Singareddy R, Mauger D, Lynch CJ. A double blind, placebo-controlled, randomized crossover study of the acute metabolic effects of olanzapine in healthy volunteers. PLoS One. 2011; 6(8):e22662.

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  1. She P, Zhang Z, Marchionini D, Diaz WC, Jetton TJ, Kimball SR, Vary TC, Lang CH, Lynch CJ. Molecular characterization of skeletal muscle atrophy in the R6/2 mouse model of Huntington’s disease. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2011 Jul; 301(1):E49-61.

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  1. Fogle RL, Hollenbeak CS, Stanley BA, Vary TC, Kimball SR, Lynch CJ. Functional proteomic analysis reveals sex-dependent differences in structural and energy-producing myocardial proteins in rat model of alcoholic cardiomyopathy. Physiol Genomics. 2011 Apr 12; 43(7):346-56.

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  1. Zhou Y, Jetton TL, Goshorn S, Lynch CJ, She P. Transamination is required for {alpha}-ketoisocaproate but not leucine to stimulate insulin secretion. J Biol Chem. 2010 Oct 29; 285(44):33718-26.

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  1. Agostino NM, Chinchilli VM, Lynch CJ, Koszyk-Szewczyk A, Gingrich R, Sivik J, Drabick JJ. Effect of the tyrosine kinase inhibitors (sunitinib, sorafenib, dasatinib, and imatinib) on blood glucose levels in diabetic and nondiabetic patients in general clinical practice. J Oncol Pharm Pract. 2011 Sep; 17(3):197-202.

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  1. Li J, Romestaing C, Han X, Li Y, Hao X, Wu Y, Sun C, Liu X, Jefferson LS, Xiong J, Lanoue KF, Chang Z, Lynch CJ, Wang H, Shi Y. Cardiolipin remodeling by ALCAT1 links oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction to obesity. Cell Metab. 2010 Aug 4; 12(2):154-65.

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  1. Culnan DM, Albaugh V, Sun M, Lynch CJ, Lang CH, Cooney RN. Ileal interposition improves glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in the obese Zucker rat. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2010 Sep; 299(3):G751-60.

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  1. Hajnal A, Kovacs P, Ahmed T, Meirelles K, Lynch CJ, Cooney RN. Gastric bypass surgery alters behavioral and neural taste functions for sweet taste in obese rats. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2010 Oct; 299(4):G967-79.

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  1. Lang CH, Lynch CJ, Vary TC. BCATm deficiency ameliorates endotoxin-induced decrease in muscle protein synthesis and improves survival in septic mice. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2010 Sep; 299(3):R935-44.

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  1. Albaugh VL, Vary TC, Ilkayeva O, Wenner BR, Maresca KP, Joyal JL, Breazeale S, Elich TD, Lang CH, Lynch CJ. Atypical antipsychotics rapidly and inappropriately switch peripheral fuel utilization to lipids, impairing metabolic flexibility in rodents. Schizophr Bull. 2012 Jan; 38(1):153-66.

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  1. Fogle RL, Lynch CJ, Palopoli M, Deiter G, Stanley BA, Vary TC. Impact of chronic alcohol ingestion on cardiac muscle protein expression. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2010 Jul; 34(7):1226-34.

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  1. Lang CH, Frost RA, Bronson SK, Lynch CJ, Vary TC. Skeletal muscle protein balance in mTOR heterozygous mice in response to inflammation and leucine. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2010 Jun; 298(6):E1283-94.

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  1. Albaugh VL, Judson JG, She P, Lang CH, Maresca KP, Joyal JL, Lynch CJ. Olanzapine promotes fat accumulation in male rats by decreasing physical activity, repartitioning energy and increasing adipose tissue lipogenesis while impairing lipolysis. Mol Psychiatry. 2011 May; 16(5):569-81.

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  1. Lang CH, Lynch CJ, Vary TC. Alcohol-induced IGF-I resistance is ameliorated in mice deficient for mitochondrial branched-chain aminotransferase. J Nutr. 2010 May; 140(5):932-8.

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  1. She P, Zhou Y, Zhang Z, Griffin K, Gowda K, Lynch CJ. Disruption of BCAA metabolism in mice impairs exercise metabolism and endurance. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2010 Apr; 108(4):941-9.

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  1. Herman MA, She P, Peroni OD, Lynch CJ, Kahn BB. Adipose tissue branched chain amino acid (BCAA) metabolism modulates circulating BCAA levels. J Biol Chem. 2010 Apr 9; 285(15):11348-56.

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  1. Li P, Knabe DA, Kim SW, Lynch CJ, Hutson SM, Wu G. Lactating porcine mammary tissue catabolizes branched-chain amino acids for glutamine and aspartate synthesis. J Nutr. 2009 Aug; 139(8):1502-9.

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  1. Lu G, Sun H, She P, Youn JY, Warburton S, Ping P, Vondriska TM, Cai H, Lynch CJ, Wang Y. Protein phosphatase 2Cm is a critical regulator of branched-chain amino acid catabolism in mice and cultured cells. J Clin Invest. 2009 Jun; 119(6):1678-87.

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  1. Nairizi A, She P, Vary TC, Lynch CJ. Leucine supplementation of drinking water does not alter susceptibility to diet-induced obesity in mice. J Nutr. 2009 Apr; 139(4):715-9.

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  1. Meirelles K, Ahmed T, Culnan DM, Lynch CJ, Lang CH, Cooney RN. Mechanisms of glucose homeostasis after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery in the obese, insulin-resistant Zucker rat. Ann Surg. 2009 Feb; 249(2):277-85.

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  1. Culnan DM, Cooney RN, Stanley B, Lynch CJ. Apolipoprotein A-IV, a putative satiety/antiatherogenic factor, rises after gastric bypass. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2009 Jan; 17(1):46-52.

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  1. She P, Van Horn C, Reid T, Hutson SM, Cooney RN, Lynch CJ. Obesity-related elevations in plasma leucine are associated with alterations in enzymes involved in branched-chain amino acid metabolism. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2007 Dec; 293(6):E1552-63.

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  1. She P, Reid TM, Bronson SK, Vary TC, Hajnal A, Lynch CJ, Hutson SM. Disruption of BCATm in mice leads to increased energy expenditure associated with the activation of a futile protein turnover cycle. Cell Metab. 2007 Sep; 6(3):181-94.

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  1. Vary TC, Lynch CJ. Nutrient signaling components controlling protein synthesis in striated muscle. J Nutr. 2007 Aug; 137(8):1835-43.

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  1. Vary TC, Deiter G, Lynch CJ. Rapamycin limits formation of active eukaryotic initiation factor 4F complex following meal feeding in rat hearts. J Nutr. 2007 Aug; 137(8):1857-62.

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  1. Vary TC, Anthony JC, Jefferson LS, Kimball SR, Lynch CJ. Rapamycin blunts nutrient stimulation of eIF4G, but not PKCepsilon phosphorylation, in skeletal muscle. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2007 Jul; 293(1):E188-96.

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  1. Vary TC, Lynch CJ. Meal feeding stimulates phosphorylation of multiple effector proteins regulating protein synthetic processes in rat hearts. J Nutr. 2006 Sep; 136(9):2284-90.

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  1. Lynch CJ, Gern B, Lloyd C, Hutson SM, Eicher R, Vary TC. Leucine in food mediates some of the postprandial rise in plasma leptin concentrations. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2006 Sep; 291(3):E621-30.

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  1. Albaugh VL, Henry CR, Bello NT, Hajnal A, Lynch SL, Halle B, Lynch CJ. Hormonal and metabolic effects of olanzapine and clozapine related to body weight in rodents. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2006 Jan; 14(1):36-51.

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  1. Vary TC, Lynch CJ. Meal feeding enhances formation of eIF4F in skeletal muscle: role of increased eIF4E availability and eIF4G phosphorylation. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2006 Apr; 290(4):E631-42.

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  1. Vary TC, Goodman S, Kilpatrick LE, Lynch CJ. Nutrient regulation of PKCepsilon is mediated by leucine, not insulin, in skeletal muscle. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2005 Oct; 289(4):E684-94.

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  1. Vary TC, Lynch CJ. Biochemical approaches for nutritional support of skeletal muscle protein metabolism during sepsis. Nutr Res Rev. 2004 Jun; 17(1):77-88.

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  1. Lynch CJ, Halle B, Fujii H, Vary TC, Wallin R, Damuni Z, Hutson SM. Potential role of leucine metabolism in the leucine-signaling pathway involving mTOR. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2003 Oct; 285(4):E854-63.

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  1. Lynch CJ, Hutson SM, Patson BJ, Vaval A, Vary TC. Tissue-specific effects of chronic dietary leucine and norleucine supplementation on protein synthesis in rats. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2002 Oct; 283(4):E824-35.

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  1. Lynch CJ, Patson BJ, Anthony J, Vaval A, Jefferson LS, Vary TC. Leucine is a direct-acting nutrient signal that regulates protein synthesis in adipose tissue. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2002 Sep; 283(3):E503-13.

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  1. Vary TC, Lynch CJ, Lang CH. Effects of chronic alcohol consumption on regulation of myocardial protein synthesis. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2001 Sep; 281(3):H1242-51.

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  1. Lynch CJ, Patson BJ, Goodman SA, Trapolsi D, Kimball SR. Zinc stimulates the activity of the insulin- and nutrient-regulated protein kinase mTOR. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2001 Jul; 281(1):E25-34.

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Global deletion of BCATm increases expression of skeletal muscle genes associated with protein turnover.

Lynch CJ1, Kimball SR2, Xu Y2, Salzberg AC3, Kawasawa YI4.   Author information
Physiol Genomics. 2015 Nov;47(11):569-80.  http://dx.doi.org:/10.1152/physiolgenomics.00055.2015

Consumption of a protein-containing meal by a fasted animal promotes protein accretion in skeletal muscle, in part through leucine stimulation of protein synthesis and indirectly through repression of protein degradation mediated by its metabolite, α-ketoisocaproate. Mice lacking the mitochondrial branched-chain aminotransferase (BCATm/Bcat2), which interconverts leucine and α-ketoisocaproate, exhibit elevated protein turnover. Here, the transcriptomes of gastrocnemius muscle from BCATm knockout (KO) and wild-type mice were compared by next-generation RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) to identify potential adaptations associated with their persistently altered nutrient signaling. Statistically significant changes in the abundance of 1,486/∼39,010 genes were identified. Bioinformatics analysis of the RNA-Seq data indicated that pathways involved in protein synthesis [eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF)-2, mammalian target of rapamycin, eIF4, and p70S6K pathways including 40S and 60S ribosomal proteins], protein breakdown (e.g., ubiquitin mediated), and muscle degeneration (apoptosis, atrophy, myopathy, and cell death) were upregulated. Also in agreement with our previous observations, the abundance of mRNAs associated with reduced body size, glycemia, plasma insulin, and lipid signaling pathways was altered in BCATm KO mice. Consistently, genes encoding anaerobic and/or oxidative metabolism of carbohydrate, fatty acids, and branched chain amino acids were modestly but systematically reduced. Although there was no indication that muscle fiber type was different between KO and wild-type mice, a difference in the abundance of mRNAs associated with a muscular dystrophy phenotype was observed, consistent with the published exercise intolerance of these mice. The results suggest transcriptional adaptations occur in BCATm KO mice that along with altered nutrient signaling may contribute to their previously reported protein turnover, metabolic and exercise phenotypes.

 

RNA sequencing reveals a slow to fast muscle fiber type transition after olanzapine infusion in rats.

Lynch CJ1, Xu Y1, Hajnal A2, Salzberg AC3, Kawasawa YI4. Author information
PLoS One. 2015 Apr 20;10(4):e0123966. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1371/journal.pone.0123966. eCollection 2015.

Second generation antipsychotics (SGAs), like olanzapine, exhibit acute metabolic side effects leading to metabolic inflexibility, hyperglycemia, adiposity and diabetes. Understanding how SGAs affect the skeletal muscle transcriptome could elucidate approaches for mitigating these side effects. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were infused intravenously with vehicle or olanzapine for 24h using a dose leading to a mild hyperglycemia. RNA-Seq was performed on gastrocnemius muscle, followed by alignment of the data with the Rat Genome Assembly 5.0. Olanzapine altered expression of 1347 out of 26407 genes. Genes encoding skeletal muscle fiber-type specific sarcomeric, ion channel, glycolytic, O2- and Ca2+-handling, TCA cycle, vascularization and lipid oxidation proteins and pathways, along with NADH shuttles and LDH isoforms were affected. Bioinformatics analyses indicate that olanzapine decreased the expression of slower and more oxidative fiber type genes (e.g., type 1), while up regulating those for the most glycolytic and least metabolically flexible, fast twitch fiber type, IIb. Protein turnover genes, necessary to bring about transition, were also up regulated. Potential upstream regulators were also identified. Olanzapine appears to be rapidly affecting the muscle transcriptome to bring about a change to a fast-glycolytic fiber type. Such fiber types are more susceptible than slow muscle to atrophy, and such transitions are observed in chronic metabolic diseases. Thus these effects could contribute to the altered body composition and metabolic disease olanzapine causes. A potential interventional strategy is implicated because aerobic exercise, in contrast to resistance exercise, can oppose such slow to fast fiber transitions.

 

Brain insulin lowers circulating BCAA levels by inducing hepatic BCAA catabolism.

Shin AC1, Fasshauer M1, Filatova N1, Grundell LA1, Zielinski E1, Zhou JY2, Scherer T1, Lindtner C1, White PJ3, Lapworth AL3,Ilkayeva O3, Knippschild U4, Wolf AM4, Scheja L5, Grove KL6, Smith RD2, Qian WJ2, Lynch CJ7, Newgard CB3, Buettner C8. Author information
Cell Metab. 2014 Nov 4;20(5):898-909. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.cmet.2014.09.003   Epub 2014 Oct 9

Circulating branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) levels are elevated in obesity/diabetes and are a sensitive predictor for type 2 diabetes. Here we show in rats that insulin dose-dependently lowers plasma BCAA levels through induction of hepatic protein expression and activity of branched-chain α-keto acid dehydrogenase (BCKDH), the rate-limiting enzyme in the BCAA degradation pathway. Selective induction of hypothalamic insulin signaling in rats and genetic modulation of brain insulin receptors in mice demonstrate that brain insulin signaling is a major regulator of BCAA metabolism by inducing hepatic BCKDH. Short-term overfeeding impairs the ability of brain insulin to lower BCAAs in rats. High-fat feeding in nonhuman primates and obesity and/or diabetes in humans is associated with reduced BCKDH protein in liver. These findings support the concept that decreased hepatic BCKDH is a major cause of increased plasma BCAAs and that hypothalamic insulin resistance may account for impaired BCAA metabolism in obesity and diabetes.

 

Branched-chain amino acids in metabolic signalling and insulin resistance.

Lynch CJ1, Adams SH2.  Author information
Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2014 Dec; 10(12):723-36. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1038/nrendo.2014.171

Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) are important nutrient signals that have direct and indirect effects. Frequently, BCAAs have been reported to mediate antiobesity effects, especially in rodent models. However, circulating levels of BCAAs tend to be increased in individuals with obesity and are associated with worse metabolic health and future insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). A hypothesized mechanism linking increased levels of BCAAs and T2DM involves leucine-mediated activation of the mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1), which results in uncoupling of insulin signalling at an early stage. A BCAA dysmetabolism model proposes that the accumulation of mitotoxic metabolites (and not BCAAs per se) promotes β-cell mitochondrial dysfunction, stress signalling and apoptosis associated with T2DM. Alternatively, insulin resistance might promote aminoacidaemia by increasing the protein degradation that insulin normally suppresses, and/or by eliciting an impairment of efficient BCAA oxidative metabolism in some tissues. Whether and how impaired BCAA metabolism might occur in obesity is discussed in this Review. Research on the role of individual and model-dependent differences in BCAA metabolism is needed, as several genes (BCKDHA, PPM1K, IVD and KLF15) have been designated as candidate genes for obesity and/or T2DM in humans, and distinct phenotypes of tissue-specific branched chain ketoacid dehydrogenase complex activity have been detected in animal models of obesity and T2DM.

 

Leucine and protein metabolism in obese Zucker rats.

She P1, Olson KC, Kadota Y, Inukai A, Shimomura Y, Hoppel CL, Adams SH, Kawamata Y, Matsumoto H, Sakai R, Lang CH, Lynch CJ.  Author information
PLoS One. 2013;8(3):e59443. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1371/journal.pone.0059443   Epub 2013 Mar 20.

Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) are circulating nutrient signals for protein accretion, however, they increase in obesity and elevations appear to be prognostic of diabetes. To understand the mechanisms whereby obesity affects BCAAs and protein metabolism, we employed metabolomics and measured rates of [1-(14)C]-leucine metabolism, tissue-specific protein synthesis and branched-chain keto-acid (BCKA) dehydrogenase complex (BCKDC) activities. Male obese Zucker rats (11-weeks old) had increased body weight (BW, 53%), liver (107%) and fat (∼300%), but lower plantaris and gastrocnemius masses (-21-24%). Plasma BCAAs and BCKAs were elevated 45-69% and ∼100%, respectively, in obese rats. Processes facilitating these rises appeared to include increased dietary intake (23%), leucine (Leu) turnover and proteolysis [35% per g fat free mass (FFM), urinary markers of proteolysis: 3-methylhistidine (183%) and 4-hydroxyproline (766%)] and decreased BCKDC per g kidney, heart, gastrocnemius and liver (-47-66%). A process disposing of circulating BCAAs, protein synthesis, was increased 23-29% by obesity in whole-body (FFM corrected), gastrocnemius and liver. Despite the observed decreases in BCKDC activities per gm tissue, rates of whole-body Leu oxidation in obese rats were 22% and 59% higher normalized to BW and FFM, respectively. Consistently, urinary concentrations of eight BCAA catabolism-derived acylcarnitines were also elevated. The unexpected increase in BCAA oxidation may be due to a substrate effect in liver. Supporting this idea, BCKAs were elevated more in liver (193-418%) than plasma or muscle, and per g losses of hepatic BCKDC activities were completely offset by increased liver mass, in contrast to other tissues. In summary, our results indicate that plasma BCKAs may represent a more sensitive metabolic signature for obesity than BCAAs. Processes supporting elevated BCAA]BCKAs in the obese Zucker rat include increased dietary intake, Leu and protein turnover along with impaired BCKDC activity. Elevated BCAAs/BCKAs may contribute to observed elevations in protein synthesis and BCAA oxidation.

 

Regulation of adipose branched-chain amino acid catabolism enzyme expression and cross-adipose amino acid flux in human obesity.

Lackey DE1, Lynch CJ, Olson KC, Mostaedi R, Ali M, Smith WH, Karpe F, Humphreys S, Bedinger DH, Dunn TN, Thomas AP, Oort PJ, Kieffer DA, Amin R, Bettaieb A, Haj FG, Permana P, Anthony TG, Adams SH.
Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2013 Jun 1; 304(11):E1175-87. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1152/ajpendo.00630.2012

Elevated blood branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) are often associated with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, which might result from a reduced cellular utilization and/or incomplete BCAA oxidation. White adipose tissue (WAT) has become appreciated as a potential player in whole body BCAA metabolism. We tested if expression of the mitochondrial BCAA oxidation checkpoint, branched-chain α-ketoacid dehydrogenase (BCKD) complex, is reduced in obese WAT and regulated by metabolic signals. WAT BCKD protein (E1α subunit) was significantly reduced by 35-50% in various obesity models (fa/fa rats, db/db mice, diet-induced obese mice), and BCKD component transcripts significantly lower in subcutaneous (SC) adipocytes from obese vs. lean Pima Indians. Treatment of 3T3-L1 adipocytes or mice with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ agonists increased WAT BCAA catabolism enzyme mRNAs, whereas the nonmetabolizable glucose analog 2-deoxy-d-glucose had the opposite effect. The results support the hypothesis that suboptimal insulin action and/or perturbed metabolic signals in WAT, as would be seen with insulin resistance/type 2 diabetes, could impair WAT BCAA utilization. However, cross-tissue flux studies comparing lean vs. insulin-sensitive or insulin-resistant obese subjects revealed an unexpected negligible uptake of BCAA from human abdominal SC WAT. This suggests that SC WAT may not be an important contributor to blood BCAA phenotypes associated with insulin resistance in the overnight-fasted state. mRNA abundances for BCAA catabolic enzymes were markedly reduced in omental (but not SC) WAT of obese persons with metabolic syndrome compared with weight-matched healthy obese subjects, raising the possibility that visceral WAT contributes to the BCAA metabolic phenotype of metabolically compromised individuals.

 

Some cannabinoid receptor ligands and their distomers are direct-acting openers of SUR1 K(ATP) channels.

Lynch CJ1, Zhou Q, Shyng SL, Heal DJ, Cheetham SC, Dickinson K, Gregory P, Firnges M, Nordheim U, Goshorn S, Reiche D,Turski L, Antel J.   Author information
Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2012 Mar 1;302(5):E540-51.
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1152/ajpendo.00258.2011

Here, we examined the chronic effects of two cannabinoid receptor-1 (CB1) inverse agonists, rimonabant and ibipinabant, in hyperinsulinemic Zucker rats to determine their chronic effects on insulinemia. Rimonabant and ibipinabant (10 mg·kg⁻¹·day⁻¹) elicited body weight-independent improvements in insulinemia and glycemia during 10 wk of chronic treatment. To elucidate the mechanism of insulin lowering, acute in vivo and in vitro studies were then performed. Surprisingly, chronic treatment was not required for insulin lowering. In acute in vivo and in vitro studies, the CB1 inverse agonists exhibited acute K channel opener (KCO; e.g., diazoxide and NN414)-like effects on glucose tolerance and glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) with approximately fivefold better potency than diazoxide. Followup studies implied that these effects were inconsistent with a CB1-mediated mechanism. Thus effects of several CB1 agonists, inverse agonists, and distomers during GTTs or GSIS studies using perifused rat islets were unpredictable from their known CB1 activities. In vivo rimonabant and ibipinabant caused glucose intolerance in CB1 but not SUR1-KO mice. Electrophysiological studies indicated that, compared with diazoxide, 3 μM rimonabant and ibipinabant are partial agonists for K channel opening. Partial agonism was consistent with data from radioligand binding assays designed to detect SUR1 K(ATP) KCOs where rimonabant and ibipinabant allosterically regulated ³H-glibenclamide-specific binding in the presence of MgATP, as did diazoxide and NN414. Our findings indicate that some CB1 ligands may directly bind and allosterically regulate Kir6.2/SUR1 K(ATP) channels like other KCOs. This mechanism appears to be compatible with and may contribute to their acute and chronic effects on GSIS and insulinemia.

 

Transamination is required for {alpha}-ketoisocaproate but not leucine to stimulate insulin secretion.

Zhou Y1, Jetton TL, Goshorn S, Lynch CJ, She P.  Author information
J Biol Chem. 2010 Oct 29;285(44):33718-26. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1074/jbc.M110.136846

It remains unclear how α-ketoisocaproate (KIC) and leucine are metabolized to stimulate insulin secretion. Mitochondrial BCATm (branched-chain aminotransferase) catalyzes reversible transamination of leucine and α-ketoglutarate to KIC and glutamate, the first step of leucine catabolism. We investigated the biochemical mechanisms of KIC and leucine-stimulated insulin secretion (KICSIS and LSIS, respectively) using BCATm(-/-) mice. In static incubation, BCATm disruption abolished insulin secretion by KIC, D,L-α-keto-β-methylvalerate, and α-ketocaproate without altering stimulation by glucose, leucine, or α-ketoglutarate. Similarly, during pancreas perfusions in BCATm(-/-) mice, glucose and arginine stimulated insulin release, whereas KICSIS was largely abolished. During islet perifusions, KIC and 2 mM glutamine caused robust dose-dependent insulin secretion in BCATm(+/+) not BCATm(-/-) islets, whereas LSIS was unaffected. Consistently, in contrast to BCATm(+/+) islets, the increases of the ATP concentration and NADPH/NADP(+) ratio in response to KIC were largely blunted in BCATm(-/-) islets. Compared with nontreated islets, the combination of KIC/glutamine (10/2 mM) did not influence α-ketoglutarate concentrations but caused 120 and 33% increases in malate in BCATm(+/+) and BCATm(-/-) islets, respectively. Although leucine oxidation and KIC transamination were blocked in BCATm(-/-) islets, KIC oxidation was unaltered. These data indicate that KICSIS requires transamination of KIC and glutamate to leucine and α-ketoglutarate, respectively. LSIS does not require leucine catabolism and may be through leucine activation of glutamate dehydrogenase. Thus, KICSIS and LSIS occur by enhancing the metabolism of glutamine/glutamate to α-ketoglutarate, which, in turn, is metabolized to produce the intracellular signals such as ATP and NADPH for insulin secretion.

 

Effect of the tyrosine kinase inhibitors (sunitinib, sorafenib, dasatinib, and imatinib) on blood glucose levels in diabetic and nondiabetic patients in general clinical practice.

Agostino NM1, Chinchilli VM, Lynch CJ, Koszyk-Szewczyk A, Gingrich R, Sivik J, Drabick JJ.
J Oncol Pharm Pract. 2011 Sep; 17(3):197-202. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1177/1078155210378913

Tyrosine kinase is a key enzyme activity utilized in many intracellular messaging pathways. Understanding the role of particular tyrosine kinases in malignancies has allowed for the design of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), which can target these enzymes and interfere with downstream signaling. TKIs have proven to be successful in the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia, renal cell carcinoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumor, and other malignancies. Scattered reports have suggested that these agents appear to affect blood glucose (BG). We retrospectively studied the BG concentrations in diabetic (17) and nondiabetic (61) patients treated with dasatinib (8), imatinib (39), sorafenib (23), and sunitinib (30) in our clinical practice. Mean declines of BG were dasatinib (53 mg/dL), imatinib (9 mg/dL), sorafenib (12 mg/dL), and sunitinib (14 mg/dL). All these declines in BG were statistically significant. Of note, 47% (8/17) of the patients with diabetes were able to discontinue their medications, including insulin in some patients. Only one diabetic patient developed symptomatic hypoglycemia while on sunitinib. The mechanism for the hypoglycemic effect of these drugs is unclear, but of the four agents tested, c-kit and PDGFRβ are the common target kinases. Clinicians should keep the potential hypoglycemic effects of these agents in mind; modification of hypoglycemic agents may be required in diabetic patients. These results also suggest that inhibition of a tyrosine kinase, be it c-kit, PDGFRβ or some other undefined target, may improve diabetes mellitus BG control and it deserves further study as a potential novel therapeutic option.

 

Cardiolipin remodeling by ALCAT1 links oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction to obesity.

Li J1, Romestaing C, Han X, Li Y, Hao X, Wu Y, Sun C, Liu X, Jefferson LS, Xiong J, Lanoue KF, Chang Z, Lynch CJ, Wang H, Shi Y.    Author information
Cell Metab. 2010 Aug 4;12(2):154-65. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.cmet.2010.07.003

Oxidative stress causes mitochondrial dysfunction and metabolic complications through unknown mechanisms. Cardiolipin (CL) is a key mitochondrial phospholipid required for oxidative phosphorylation. Oxidative damage to CL from pathological remodeling is implicated in the etiology of mitochondrial dysfunction commonly associated with diabetes, obesity, and other metabolic diseases. Here, we show that ALCAT1, a lyso-CL acyltransferase upregulated by oxidative stress and diet-induced obesity (DIO), catalyzes the synthesis of CL species that are highly sensitive to oxidative damage, leading to mitochondrial dysfunction, ROS production, and insulin resistance. These metabolic disorders were reminiscent of those observed in type 2 diabetes and were reversed by rosiglitazone treatment. Consequently, ALCAT1 deficiency prevented the onset of DIO and significantly improved mitochondrial complex I activity, lipid oxidation, and insulin signaling in ALCAT1(-/-) mice. Collectively, these findings identify a key role of ALCAT1 in regulating CL remodeling, mitochondrial dysfunction, and susceptibility to DIO.

 

BCATm deficiency ameliorates endotoxin-induced decrease in muscle protein synthesis and improves survival in septic mice.

Lang CH1, Lynch CJ, Vary TC.   Author information
Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2010 Sep; 299(3):R935-44.
http://dx.doi.org:/10.1152/ajpregu.00297.2010

Endotoxin (LPS) and sepsis decrease mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) activity in skeletal muscle, thereby reducing protein synthesis. Our study tests the hypothesis that inhibition of branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) catabolism, which elevates circulating BCAA and stimulates mTOR, will blunt the LPS-induced decrease in muscle protein synthesis. Wild-type (WT) and mitochondrial branched-chain aminotransferase (BCATm) knockout mice were studied 4 h after Escherichia coli LPS or saline. Basal skeletal muscle protein synthesis was increased in knockout mice compared with WT, and this change was associated with increased eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF)-4E binding protein-1 (4E-BP1) phosphorylation, eIF4E.eIF4G binding, 4E-BP1.raptor binding, and eIF3.raptor binding without a change in the mTOR.raptor complex in muscle. LPS decreased muscle protein synthesis in WT mice, a change associated with decreased 4E-BP1 phosphorylation as well as decreased formation of eIF4E.eIF4G, 4E-BP1.raptor, and eIF3.raptor complexes. In BCATm knockout mice given LPS, muscle protein synthesis only decreased to values found in vehicle-treated WT control mice, and this ameliorated LPS effect was associated with a coordinate increase in 4E-BP1.raptor, eIF3.raptor, and 4E-BP1 phosphorylation. Additionally, the LPS-induced increase in muscle cytokines was blunted in BCATm knockout mice, compared with WT animals. In a separate study, 7-day survival and muscle mass were increased in BCATm knockout vs. WT mice after polymicrobial peritonitis. These data suggest that elevating blood BCAA is sufficient to ameliorate the catabolic effect of LPS on skeletal muscle protein synthesis via alterations in protein-protein interactions within mTOR complex-1, and this may provide a survival advantage in response to bacterial infection.

 

Alcohol-induced IGF-I resistance is ameliorated in mice deficient for mitochondrial branched-chain aminotransferase.

Lang CH1, Lynch CJ, Vary TC.  Author information
J Nutr. 2010 May;140(5):932-8. http://dx.doi.org:/10.3945/jn.109.120501

Acute alcohol intoxication decreases skeletal muscle protein synthesis by impairing mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). In 2 studies, we determined whether inhibition of branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) catabolism ameliorates the inhibitory effect of alcohol on muscle protein synthesis by raising the plasma BCAA concentrations and/or by improving the anabolic response to insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I. In the first study, 4 groups of mice were used: wild-type (WT) and mitochondrial branched-chain aminotransferase (BCATm) knockout (KO) mice orally administered saline or alcohol (5 g/kg, 1 h). Protein synthesis was greater in KO mice compared with WT controls and was associated with greater phosphorylation of eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF)-4E binding protein-1 (4EBP1), eIF4E-eIF4G binding, and 4EBP1-regulatory associated protein of mTOR (raptor) binding, but not mTOR-raptor binding. Alcohol decreased protein synthesis in WT mice, a change associated with less 4EBP1 phosphorylation, eIF4E-eIF4G binding, and raptor-4EBP1 binding, but greater mTOR-raptor complex formation. Comparable alcohol effects on protein synthesis and signal transduction were detected in BCATm KO mice. The second study used the same 4 groups, but all mice were injected with IGF-I (25 microg/mouse, 30 min). Alcohol impaired the ability of IGF-I to increase muscle protein synthesis, 4EBP1 and 70-kilodalton ribosomal protein S6 kinase-1 phosphorylation, eIF4E-eIF4G binding, and 4EBP1-raptor binding in WT mice. However, in alcohol-treated BCATm KO mice, this IGF-I resistance was not manifested. These data suggest that whereas the sustained elevation in plasma BCAA is not sufficient to ameliorate the catabolic effect of acute alcohol intoxication on muscle protein synthesis, it does improve the anabolic effect of IGF-I.

 

Impact of chronic alcohol ingestion on cardiac muscle protein expression.

Fogle RL1, Lynch CJ, Palopoli M, Deiter G, Stanley BA, Vary TC.  Author information
Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2010 Jul;34(7):1226-34. http://dx.doi.org:/10.1111/j.1530-0277.2010.01200.x

BACKGROUND:

Chronic alcohol abuse contributes not only to an increased risk of health-related complications, but also to a premature mortality in adults. Myocardial dysfunction, including the development of a syndrome referred to as alcoholic cardiomyopathy, appears to be a major contributing factor. One mechanism to account for the pathogenesis of alcoholic cardiomyopathy involves alterations in protein expression secondary to an inhibition of protein synthesis. However, the full extent to which myocardial proteins are affected by chronic alcohol consumption remains unresolved.

METHODS:

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of chronic alcohol consumption on the expression of cardiac proteins. Male rats were maintained for 16 weeks on a 40% ethanol-containing diet in which alcohol was provided both in drinking water and agar blocks. Control animals were pair-fed to consume the same caloric intake. Heart homogenates from control- and ethanol-fed rats were labeled with the cleavable isotope coded affinity tags (ICAT). Following the reaction with the ICAT reagent, we applied one-dimensional gel electrophoresis with in-gel trypsin digestion of proteins and subsequent MALDI-TOF-TOF mass spectrometric techniques for identification of peptides. Differences in the expression of cardiac proteins from control- and ethanol-fed rats were determined by mass spectrometry approaches.

RESULTS:

Initial proteomic analysis identified and quantified hundreds of cardiac proteins. Major decreases in the expression of specific myocardial proteins were observed. Proteins were grouped depending on their contribution to multiple activities of cardiac function and metabolism, including mitochondrial-, glycolytic-, myofibrillar-, membrane-associated, and plasma proteins. Another group contained identified proteins that could not be properly categorized under the aforementioned classification system.

CONCLUSIONS:

Based on the changes in proteins, we speculate modulation of cardiac muscle protein expression represents a fundamental alteration induced by chronic alcohol consumption, consistent with changes in myocardial wall thickness measured under the same conditions.

 

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Parathyroid hormone may mediate antihypertensive fracture risk

Posted in Atherogenic Processes & Pathology, Endocrine Diseases, HTN, Pharmacotherapy of Cardiovascular Disease on February 21, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Parathyroid hormone may mediate antihypertensive fracture risk

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

Parathyroid hormone levels may be elevated by use of some antihypertensive agents but reduced by others, analysis of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis suggests.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.news-medical.net

See on Scoop.it – Cardiotoxicity

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Experience with Thyroid Cancer

Posted in Cancer and Current Therapeutics, Clinical & Translational, Clinical Diagnostics, Clinical Genomics, CT, Curation, Endocrine Diseases, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 23, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Experience with Thyroid Cancer

Author: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

 

 

I retired from my position as pathologist in charge of clinical laboratories after five years at New York Methodist Hospital, with great satisfaction in mentoring students from the high schools and university undergraduate programs nearby interested in science.  I was fortunate to experience the Brooklyn “cityscape” and vibrance, and to work with other physician educators in surgery and cardiology and pulmonary medicine. Most of my students participated in presenting papers at professional meetings, and some coauthored published work.  But I was about to enter a new phase of life.  I returned to my home in Connecticut and immediately accepted a temporary position for less than a year as the Blood Bank – Transfusion Medicine Director at Norwalk Hospital, which also afforded the opportunity to help with the installation of an automated hematology system, and to help in the quality monitoring in Chemistry.  It was a good reprieve from the anxiety of having nothing to do after an intense professional  career.  When that ended I went to Yale University Department of Mathematics  and found a collaborative project with a brilliant postdoc and his mentor, Professor and Emeritus Chairman Ronald Coifman.  A colleague of mine many years ago had done a project with the automated hematology, but it was too early for a good interpretive hemogram.  I had sufficient data in 8,000 lines of data containing all of the important information.  We managed to develop an algorithm in over a year that would interpret the data and provide a list of probabilities for the physician, and we used part of the data set for creating the algorithm and another set for validation.   In the meantime I also became engaged in twice weekly sessions in Yoga, Pilates, and massage therapy, and did some swimming.  I also participated in discussions with a group of retired men up to 20 years senior to me. I also did two rounds of walking around the condonium that was home to my wife and I.

 

Then I noticed that I became weak and short of breath in walking around the condominium streets and had to stop and hold a tree or streetlamp.  I was long-term diabetic and was followed by a pulmonologist for sleep apnea for some five years.  This was an insidious health presentation, as I had had good pulmonary and cardiac status at that point in time.  Then an “aha!” moment occurred when my laboratory results showed a high level of thyroid stimulating hormone.  It was one of a rare instances of hyperparathyroidism occurring with a thyroid tumor.

I then had radiological testing of the head and neck, which led to a thyroid biopsy.  I then chose to referral to Yale University Health Sciences Center, where there was an excellent endocrinologist, and it was a leading center for head and neck surgery.  All of this took many trips, much testing, biopsies of thyroid and its removal.  There also were 3 proximate lymph nodes.  In undergoing the tests the technicians said that they had never had a patient like me because of my questions and comments.  It was a papillary thyroid cancer involving the center and right lobe, with a characteristic appearance and identified by a histologically stained biomarker that I reviewed with my longtime friend and colleague, Dr. Marguerite Pinto.  The surgery and followup went well.

 

However, I developed  double-vision (diplopia) and was referent to one of a handful of neuro-ophthalmologists in Connecticut.  Perhaps related to the hyperthyroid condition, I had developed an anti-thyroid antibody that disturbed the lower muscle that moves the right eye.  This required many test over months, and my wearing a special attachable lens gradient to equalize the vision in both eyes.  The next requirement was to watch and wait. It could be corrected by surgery if it remained after a year.  Nevertheless, it subsided over a period of perhaps 9 months and I removed the attachment with sufficient return of my previous sight.

In the meantime I was writing a lot over this period, and I also began to watch MSNBC and Turner Classic Movies on a regular basis and found relief.  I’m not a “laugher” and have had a long-term anxiety state.  I enjoyed watching the magic of Charlie Chaplin, Al Jolson, Lassie, and whatever caught my fancy.

My daughter was accepted for a tenure earning faculty position competing against a large field of candidates for an Assistant Professorship at Holyoke Community College in Western Massachusetts. Her husband had invested 15 years as a Navy physician and neurologist, having graduated from the Armed Services Medical School in Bethesda, and given this opportunity, decided to forgo further service  would pay for their child’s future college education.  He is very bright, knowledgable, and a blessing for a son-in-law.  We went through the sale of our house and the search for a living arrangement near our daughter, all while I was going through my therapy.  It was undoubtedly the best thing to moving near the daughter.

The move became an enormous challenge.  It took time to sell the condominium, which was  desirable in  a difficult market.  I became engaged in trashing what I need not save, but I had to review hundreds of published work, unpublished papers, saved publications, and hundreds of photographs large and small, that I had kept over many years.  I had to dispense of my darkroom equipment, and we managed to give much away.  It was very engaging.  It was impossible to be overwhelmed, but also tiring over the long haul.

Prior to moving, my wife had trouble swallowing, and she was subsequently found to have an esophageal carcinoma at 20 cm, and invading the submucosa.  We made arrangement for treatment by Massachusetts General Hospital, which could be done at its cancer affiliate in Northampton, MA.  The move was made, and we have temporary residence in a townhouse in Northampton, woon to move to an adult living facility.  My wife is lucky enough to have a squamous cell carcinoma, not adenocarcinoma.  Her treatment needed careful adjustments.  She decided to live it out whatever the outcome.  However, she has done well.  She maintained her weight, underwent radiation and chemotherapy, which is finished, and is returning to eating more than soft food and protein shakes. She has enjoyed being a grandmother to an incredible kid in kindergarten only a block away, and engaged in reading and all sorts of puzzles and games.

My own health has seen a decline in ease of motion. I am starting physical therapy and also pulmonary therapy for my asthma.  Having a grandson is both a pleasure and an education. Being a grandparent, one is relieved of the responsibility of being a parent.

In following my wife’s serious illness, which precluded surgery, we have had phone calls from her sister daily, weekend visits nonstop, and more to come.  She has been very satisfied with the quality of care.
My triplet sister calls often for both of us.  We also call my 95 year old aunt, who is my mother’s sister.  My mother’s younger brother enjoyed life, left Hungary as a medical student in 1941 and became an insurance salesman in Cleveland. He lived to 99 years old.  He outlived 3 wives, all friends of my mother.
His daughter has called me for a medical second opinion for a good fifteen years.  She was a very rare patient who had a pituitary growth hormone secreting adenocarcinoma (Addison’s Disease) for which she had two surgeries, and regularly visits the Cleveland Clinic and the Jewish Hospital of Los Angeles.

 

 

 

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Computer Aided Design

Posted in Artificial Intelligence - General, Big Data, Clinical & Translational, Clinical Diagnostics, Computational Biology/Systems and Bioinformatics, Curation, Diagnostics and Lab Tests, Drug Toxicity, Endocrine Diseases, Frontiers in Cardiology and Cardiovascular Disorders, Hematology, Intelligent Information Systems, tagged , on November 17, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Computer Aided Design, Volume 2 (Volume Two: Latest in Genomics Methodologies for Therapeutics: Gene Editing, NGS and BioInformatics, Simulations and the Genome Ontology), Part 1: Next Generation Sequencing (NGS)

Computer Aided Design

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator

LPBI

 

IBM’s Watson shown to enhance human-computer co-creativity, support biologically inspired design

Watson Engagement Advisor AI system was trained to “learn” about biologically inspired design from biology articles, then answer questions
November 13, 2015   http://www.kurzweilai.net/ibms-watson-shown-to-enhance-human-computer-co-creativity-support-biologically-inspired-design

http://www.kurzweilai.net/images/Enhancing-Human-Computer-Co-Creativity.jpg

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers, working with student teams, trained a cloud-based version of IBM’s Watson called the Watson Engagement Advisor to provide answers to questions about biologically inspired design (biomimetics), a design paradigm that uses biological systems as analogues for inventing technological systems.

 

Ashok Goel, a professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing who conducts research on computational creativity. In an experiment, he used this version of Watson as an “intelligent research assistant” to support teaching about biologically inspired design and computational creativity in the Georgia Tech CS4803/8803 class on Computational Creativity in Spring 2015. Goel found that Watson’s ability to retrieve natural language information could allow a novice to quickly “train up” about complex topics and better determine whether their idea or hypothesis is worth pursuing.

An intelligent research assistant

In the form of a class project, the students fed Watson several hundred biology articles from Biologue, an interactive biology repository, and 1,200 question-answer pairs. The teams then posed questions to Watson about the research it had “learned” regarding big design challenges in areas such as engineering, architecture, systems, and computing.

Examples of questions:

“How do you make a better desalination process for consuming sea water?” (Animals have a variety of answers for this, such as how seagulls filter out seawater salt through special glands.)

“How can manufacturers develop better solar cells for long-term space travel?” One answer: Replicate how plants in harsh climates use high-temperature fibrous insulation material to regulate temperature.

Watson effectively acted as an intelligent sounding board to steer students through what would otherwise be a daunting task of parsing a wide volume of research that may fall outside their expertise.

This version of Watson also prompts users with alternate ways to ask questions for better results. Those results are packaged as a “treetop” where each answer is a “leaf” that varies in size based on its weighted importance. This was intended to allow the average user to navigate results more easily on a given topic.

 

http://www.kurzweilai.net/images/GT-Watson-Plus-Concept-Results.png

Results from training the Watson AI system were packaged as a “treetop” where each answer is a “leaf” that varies in size based on its weighted importance. Each leaf is the starting point for a Q&A with Watson. (credit: Georgia Tech)

 

“Imagine if you could ask Google a complicated question and it immediately responded with your answer — not just a list of links to manually open, says Goel. “That’s what we did with Watson. Researchers are provided a quickly digestible visual map of the concepts relevant to the query and the degree to which they are relevant. We were able to add more semantic and contextual meaning to Watson to give some notion of a conversation with the AI.”

 

http://www.kurzweilai.net/images/Watson-Screenshot.png

Georgia Tech’s Watson Engagement Advisor (credit: Georgia Tech)

 

Goel believes this approach to using Watson could assist professionals in a variety of fields by allowing them to ask questions and receive answers as quickly as in a natural conversation. He plans to investigate other areas with Watson such as online learning and healthcare.

The work was presented at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) 2015 Fall Symposium on Cognitive Assistance in Government, Nov. 12–14, in Arlington, Va. and was published in Procs. AAAI 2015 Fall Symposium on Cognitive Assistance (open access).

 

Abstract of Using Watson for Enhancing Human-Computer Co-Creativity

We describe an experiment in using IBM’s Watson cognitive system to teach about human-computer co-creativity in
a Georgia Tech Spring 2015 class on computational creativity. The project-based class used Watson to support biologically
inspired design, a design paradigm that uses biological systems as analogues for inventing technological
systems. The twenty-four students in the class self-organized into six teams of four students each, and developed semester-long projects that built on Watson to support biologically inspired design. In this paper, we describe this experiment in using Watson to teach about human-computer co-creativity, present one project in detail, and summarize the remaining five projects. We also draw lessons on building on Watson for (i) supporting biologically inspired design, and (ii) enhancing human-computer co-creativity.

references:

related:

sjwilliams

Interesting however Google had just announced a big AI venture of their own. Although it is curious why they needed such a defined training set. It seems, as was said in the EmTechMIT lectures that AI is still in its infancy and is nowhere near a true AI system. It is also interesting to note how rapidly China is expanding their supercomputing power (growth of supercomputers in China is dwarfing that in the US, in fact US has 20 less suipercomputers).

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Diabetic Retinopathy

Posted in Auditory and vision, Blindness, Clinical & Translational, Curation, Diabetes Mellitus, Disease Biology, Disease Biology, Small Molecules in Development of Therapeutic Drugs, Endocrine Diseases, Immunology, Immunotherapy, Innovations, International Global Work in Pharmaceutical, Monoclonal antibody therapy, tagged , , , , on November 16, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Diabetic Retinopathy

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator

LPBI

 

Lucentis effective for proliferative diabetic retinopathy

NIH-funded clinical trial marks first major advance in therapy in 40 years.

http://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/lucentis-effective-proliferative-diabetic-retinopathy

Illustration of ruptured blood vessels

http://www.nih.gov/sites/default/files/styles/featured_media_breakpoint-large-extra/public/news-events/news-releases/2015/20151116-eye-blood-vessels.jpg

Abnormal blood vessels bleeding into the center of the eye due to proliferative diabetic retinopathy.

https://youtu.be/jPoCIa0_1po

A clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health has found that the drug ranibizumab (Lucentis) is highly effective in treating proliferative diabetic retinopathy. The trial, conducted by the Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network (DRCR.net) compared Lucentis with a type of laser therapy called panretinal or scatter photocoagulation, which has remained the gold standard for proliferative diabetic retinopathy since the mid-1970s. The findings demonstrate the first major therapy advance in nearly 40 years.

“These latest results from the DRCR Network provide crucial evidence for a safe and effective alternative to laser therapy against proliferative diabetic retinopathy,” said Paul A. Sieving, M.D., Ph.D., director of NIH’s National Eye Institute (NEI), which funded the trial.  The results were published online today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Treating abnormal retinal blood vessels with laser therapy became the standard treatment for proliferative diabetic retinopathy after the NEI announced results of the Diabetic Retinopathy Study in 1976. Although laser therapy effectively preserves central vision, it can damage night and side vision; so, researchers have sought therapies that work as well or better than laser but without such side effects.

A complication of diabetes, diabetic retinopathy can damage blood vessels in the light-sensitive retina in the back of the eye. As the disease worsens, blood vessels may swell, become distorted and lose their ability to function properly. Diabetic retinopathy becomes proliferative when lack of blood flow in the retina increases production of a substance called vascular endothelial growth factor, which can stimulate the growth of new, abnormal blood vessels. These new vessels are prone to bleeding into the center of the eye, often requiring a surgical procedure called a vitrectomy to clear the blood. The abnormal blood vessels can also cause scarring and retinal detachment. Lucentis is among several drugs that block the effects of vascular endothelial growth factor.

About 7.7 million U.S. residents have diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of blindness among working-age Americans. Among these, about 1.5 percent have PDR.

The DRCR.net enrolled 305 participants (394 eyes) with proliferative diabetic retinopathy in one or both eyes at 55 clinical sites across the country. Eyes were assigned randomly to treatment with Lucentis or laser. For participants who enrolled both eyes in the study, one eye was assigned to the laser group and the other was assigned to the Lucentis group. About half of the eyes assigned to the laser group required more than one round of laser treatment. In the other group, Lucentis (0.5 mg/0.05 ml) was given via injections into the eye once per month for three consecutive months, and then as needed until the disease resolved or stabilized.

Because Lucentis is commonly used to treat diabetic macular edema—the build-up of fluid in the central area of the retina—the study permitted the use of Lucentis for diabetic macular edema in the laser group, if necessary. Slightly more than half (53 percent) of eyes in the laser group received Lucentis injections to treat diabetic macular edema. About 6 percent of eyes in the Lucentis group received laser therapy, mostly to treat retinal detachment or bleeding.

At two years, vision in the Lucentis group improved by about half a line on an eye chart compared with virtually no change in the laser group. There was little change in side vision with injection (average worsening of 23 decibels) but a substantial loss of side vision with laser (average worsening of 422 decibels).   The vitrectomy rate was lower in the Lucentis group (8 of 191 eyes) than in the laser group (30 of 203 eyes).

Rates of serious systemic adverse events, including cardiac arrest and stroke, were similar between the two groups. One patient in the Lucentis group developed endophthalmitis, an infection in the eye. Other side effects were low, with little difference between treatment groups.

“Lucentis should be considered a viable treatment option for people with proliferative diabetic retinopathy, especially for individuals needing anti-vascular endothelial growth factor for diabetic macular edema,” said Jeffrey G. Gross, M.D., of the Carolina Retina Center in Columbia, South Carolina, who chaired the study. Dr. Gross presented results November 13, 2015, at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in Las Vegas.

In addition to treating proliferative diabetic retinopathy, the report suggests Lucentis may even help prevent diabetic macular edema from occurring. Among people without diabetic macular edema at the start of the study, only 9 percent of Lucentis-treated eyes developed diabetic macular edema during the study, compared with 28 percent in the laser group. The DRCR.net will continue to follow patients in this study for a total of five years.

The DRCR.net is dedicated to facilitating multicenter clinical research of diabetic eye disease. The network formed in 2002 and comprises more than 350 physicians practicing at more than 140 clinical sites across the country. For more information, visit the DRCR.net website at http://drcrnet.jaeb.org/(link is external).

The study was funded by NEI grants EY14231, EY23207, EY18817.

Lucentis was provided by Genentech. Additional research funding for this study was provided by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, also a part of the NIH.

The study is registered as NCT01489189 at ClinicalTrials.gov(link is external).

The NEI provides information about diabetic eye disease at http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/diabetic/.

Information about diabetes is available through the National Diabetes Education Program, www.ndep.nih.gov/.

View an NEI video about the study at https://youtu.be/jPoCIa0_1po(link is external).

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Excess Eating, Overweight, and Diabetic

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Excess Eating, Overweight, and Diabetic

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator

LPBI

 

You Did NOT Eat Your Way to Diabetes!

http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14046739.php

 

The myth that diabetes is caused by overeating also hurts the one out of five people who are not overweight when they contract Type 2 Diabetes. Because doctors only think “Diabetes” when they see a patient who fits the stereotype–the grossly obese inactive patient–they often neglect to check people of normal weight for blood sugar disorders even when they show up with classic symptoms of high blood sugar such as recurrent urinary tract infections or neuropathy.

Where Did This Toxic Myth Come From?

The way this myth originated is this: Because people with Type 2 Diabetes are often overweight and because many people who are overweight have a syndrome called “insulin resistance” in which their cells do not respond properly to insulin so that they require larger than normal amounts of insulin to lower their blood sugar, the conclusion was drawn years ago that insulin resistance was the cause of Type 2 Diabetes.

It made sense. Something was burning out the beta cells in these people, and it seemed logical that the something must be the stress of pumping out huge amounts of insulin, day after day. This idea was so compelling that it was widely believed by medical professionals, though few realized it had never been subjected to careful investigation by large-scale research.

That is why any time there is an article in the news about Type 2 Diabetes you are likely to read something that says, “While Type 1 diabetes (sometimes called Juvenile Diabetes) is a condition where the body does not produce insulin, Type 2 Diabetes is the opposite: a condition where the body produces far too much insulin because of insulin resistance caused by obesity.”

When your doctor tells you the same thing, the conclusion is inescapable: your overeating caused you to put on excess fat and that your excess fat is what made you diabetic.

Blaming the Victim

This line of reasoning leads to subtle, often unexpressed, judgmental decisions on the part of your doctor, who is likely to believe that had you not been such a pig, you would not have given yourself this unnecessary disease.

And because of this unspoken bias, unless you are able to “please” your doctor by losing a great deal of weight after your diagnosis you may find yourself treated with a subtle but callous disregard because of the doctor’s feeling that you brought this condition down on yourself. This bias is similar to that held by doctors who face patients who smoke a pack a day and get lung cancer and still refuse to stop smoking.

You also see this bias frequently expressed in the media. Articles on the “obesity epidemic” blame overeating for a huge increase in the number of people with diabetes, including children and teenagers who are pictured greedily gorging on supersized fast foods while doing no exercise more strenuous than channel surfing. In a society where the concepts “thin” and “healthy” have taken on the overtones of moral virtue and where the only one of the seven deadly sins that still inspires horror and condemnation is gluttony, being fat is considered by many as sure proof of moral weakness. So it is not surprising that the subtext of media coverage of obesity and diabetes is that diabetes is nothing less than the just punishment you deserve for being such a glutton.

Except that it’s not true.

Obesity Has Risen Dramatically While Diabetes Rates Have Not

The rate of obesity has grown alarmingly over the past decades, especially in certain regions of the U.S. The NIH reports that “From 1960-2 to 2005-6, the prevalence of obesity increased from 13.4 to 35.1 percent in U.S. adults age 20 to 74.7.”

If obesity was causing diabetes, you’d exect to see a similar rise in the diabetes rate. But this has not happened. The CDC reports that “From 1980 through 2010, the crude prevalence of diagnosed diabetes increased …from 2.5% to 6.9%.” However, if you look at the graph that accompanies this statement, you see that the rate of diabetes diagnoses rose only gradually through this period–to about 3.5% until it suddenly sped upward in the late 1990s. This sudden increase largely due to the fact that in 1998 the American Diabetes Association changed the criteria by which diabetes was to be diagnosed, lowering the fasting blood sugar level used to diagnose diabetes from 141 mg/dl to 126 mg/dl. (Details HERE)

Analyzing these statistics, it becomes clear that though roughtly 65 million more Americans became fat over this period, only 13 million more Americans became diabetic.

And to further confuse the matter, several factors other than the rise in obesity and the ADA’s lowering of the diagnostic cutoff also came into play during this period which also raised the rate of diabetes diagnoses:

Diabetes becomes more common as people age as the pancreas like other organs, becames less efficient. In 1950 only 12% of the U.S. population was over 65. By 2010 40% was, and of those 40%, 19% were over 75.(Details HERE.)

At the same time, the period during which the rate of diabetes rose was also the period in which doctors began to heavily prescribe statins, a class of drugs we now know raises the risk of developing diabetes. (Details HERE.)

Why Obesity Doesn’t Cause Diabetes: The Genetic Basis of Diabetes

While people who have diabetes are often heavy, one out of five people diagnosed with diabetes are thin or normal weight. And though heavy people with diabetes are, indeed, likely to be insulin resistant, the majority of people who are overweight will never develop diabetes. In fact, they will not develop diabetes though they are likely to be just as insulin resistant as those who do–or even more so.

The message that diabetes researchers in academic laboratories are coming up with about what really causes diabetes is quite different from what you read in the media. What they are finding is that to get Type 2 Diabetes you need to have some combination of a variety of already-identified genetic flaws which produce the syndrome that we call Type 2 Diabetes. This means that unless you have inherited abnormal genes or had your genes damaged by exposure to pesticides, plastics and other environmental toxins known to cause genetic damage, you can eat until you drop and never develop diabetes.

Now let’s look in more depth at what peer reviewed research has found about the true causes of diabetes

Twin Studies Back up a Genetic Cause for Diabetes

Studies of identical twins showed that twins have an 80% concordance for Type 2 Diabetes. In other words, if one twin has Type 2 Diabetes, the chance that the other will have it two are 4 out of 5. While you might assume that this might simply point to the fact that twins are raised in the same home by mothers who feed them the same unhealthy diets, studies of non-identical twins found NO such correlation. The chances that one non-identical twin might have Type 2 Diabetes if the other had it were much lower, though these non-identical twins, born at the same time and raised by the same caregivers were presumably also exposed to the same unhealthy diets.

This kind of finding begins to hint that there is more than just bad habits to blame for diabetes. A high concordance between identical twins which is not shared by non-identical twins is usually advanced as an argument for a genetic cause, though because one in five identical twins did not become diabetic, it is assumed that some additional factors beyond the inherited genome must come into play to cause the disease to appear. Often this factor is an exposure to an environmental toxin which knocks out some other, protective genetic factor.

The Genetic Basis of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Impaired Insulin Secretion versus Impaired Insulin Sensitivity. John E. Gerich. Endocrine Reviews 19(4) 491-503, 1998.

The List of Genes Associated with Type 2 Keeps Growing

Here is a brief list of some of the abnormal genes that have been found to be associated with Type 2 Diabetes in people of European extraction: TCF7L2, HNF4-a, PTPN, SHIP2, ENPP1, PPARG, FTO, KCNJ11, NOTCh3, WFS1, CDKAL1, IGF2BP2, SLC30A8, JAZF1, and HHEX.

People from non-European ethnic groups have been found to have entirely different sets of diabetic genes than do Western Europeans, like the UCP2 polymorphism found in Pima Indians and the three Calpain-10 gene polymorphisms that have been found to be associated with diabetes in Mexicans. The presence of a variation in yet another gene, SLC16A11, was recently found to be associated with a 25% higher risk of a Mexican developing Type 2 diabetes.

The More Diabetes Genes You Have The Worse Your Beta Cells Perform

A study published in the Journal Diabetologia in November 2008 studied how well the beta cells secreted insulin in 1,211 non-diabetic individuals. They then screened these people for abnormalities in seven genes that have been found associated with Type 2 Diabetes.

They found that with each abnormal gene found in a person’s genome, there was an additive effect on that person’s beta cell dysfunction with each additional gene causing poorer beta cell function.

The impact of these genetic flaws becomes clear when we learn that in these people who were believed to be normal, beta cell glucose sensitivity and insulin production at meal times was decreased by 39% in people who had abnormalities in five genes. That’s almost half. And if your beta cells are only putting out half as much insulin as a normal person’s it takes a lot less stress on those cells to push you into becoming diabetic.

Beta cell glucose sensitivity is decreased by 39% in non-diabetic individuals carrying multiple diabetes-risk alleles compared with those with no risk alleles L. Pascoe et al. Diabetologia, Volume 51, Number 11 / November, 2008.

Gene Tests Predict Diabetes Independent of Conventional “Risk Factors”

A study of 16,061 Swedish and 2770 Finnish subjects found that

Variants in 11 genes (TCF7L2, PPARG, FTO, KCNJ11, NOTCh3, WFS1, CDKAL1, IGF2BP2, SLC30A8, JAZF1, and HHEX) were significantly associated with the risk of Type 2 Diabetes independently of clinical risk factors [i.e. family history, obesity etc.]; variants in 8 of these genes were associated with impaired beta-cell function.

Note that though the subjects here were being screened for Type 2 Diabetes, the defect found here was NOT insulin resistance, but rather deficient insulin secretion. This study also found that:

The discriminative power of genetic risk factors improved with an increasing duration of follow-up, whereas that of clinical risk factors decreased.

In short, the longer these people were studied, the more likely the people with these gene defects were to develop diabetes.

Clinical Risk Factors, DNA Variants, and the Development of Type 2 Diabetes Valeriya Lyssenko, M.D. et. al. New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 359:2220-2232, November 20, 2008,Number 21.

What A Common Diabetes Gene Does

A study published in July of 2009 sheds light on what exactly it is that an allele (gene variant) often found associated with diabetes does. The allele in question is one of TCF7L2 transcription factor gene. The study involved 81 normal healthy young Danish men whose genes were tested. They were then given a battery of tests to examine their glucose metabolisms. The researchers found that:

Carriers of the T allele were characterised by reduced 24 h insulin concentrations … and reduced insulin secretion relative to glucose during a mixed meal test … but not during an IVGTT [intravenous glucose tolerance test].

This is an interesting finding, because what damages our bodies is the blood sugar we experience after eating “a mixed meal” but so much research uses the artificial glucose tolerance (GTT) test to assess blood sugar health. This result suggests that the GTT may be missing important signs of early blood sugar dysfunction and that the mixed meal test may be a better diagnostic test than the GTT. I have long believed this to be true, since so many people experience reactive lows when they take the GTT which produces a seemingly “normal reading” though they routinely experience highs after eating meals. These highs are what damage our organs.

Young men with the TCF7L2 allele also responded with weak insulin secretion in response to the incretin hormone GLP-1 and “Despite elevated hepatic [liver] glucose production, carriers of the T allele had significantly reduced 24 h glucagon concentrations … suggesting altered alpha cell function.”

Here again we see evidence that long before obesity develops, people with this common diabetes gene variant show highly abnormal blood sugar behavior. Abnormal production of glucose by the liver may also contribute to obesity as metformin, a drug that that blocks the liver’s production of glucose blocks weight gain and often causes weight loss.

The T allele of rs7903146 TCF7L2 is associated with impaired insulinotropic action of incretin hormones, reduced 24 h profiles of plasma insulin and glucagon, and increased hepatic glucose production in young healthy men. K. Pilgaard et al. Diabetologia, Issue Volume 52, Number 7 / July, 2009. DOI 10.1007/s00125-009-1307-x

Genes Linked to African Heritage Linked to Poor Carbohydrate Metabolism

It has long been known that African-Americans have a much higher rate of diabetes and metabolic syndrome than the American population as a whole. This has been blamed on lifestyle, but a 2009 genetic study finds strong evidence that the problem is genetic.

The study reports,

Using genetic samples obtained from a cohort of subjects undergoing cardiac-related evaluation, a strict algorithm that filtered for genomic features at multiple levels identified 151 differentially-expressed genes between Americans of African ancestry and those of European ancestry. Many of the genes identified were associated with glucose and simple sugar metabolism, suggestive of a model whereby selective adaptation to the nutritional environment differs between populations of humans separated geographically over time.

In the full text discussion the authors state,

These results suggest that differences in glucose metabolism between Americans of African and European may reside at the transcriptional level. The down-regulation of these genes in the AA cohorts argues against these changes being a compensatory response to hyperglycemia and suggests instead a genetic adaptation to changes in the availability of dietary sugars that may no longer be appropriate to a Western Diet.

In conclusion the authors note that the vegetarian diet of the Seventh Day Adventists, often touted as proof of the usefulness of the “Diet Pyramid” doesn’t provide the touted health benefits to people of African American Heritage. Obviously, when hundreds of carbohydrate metabolizing genes aren’t working properly the diet needed is a low carbohydrate diet.

The study is available in full text here:

Stable Patterns of Gene Expression Regulating Carbohydrate Metabolism Determined by Geographic AncestryJonathan C. Schisler et. al. PLoS One 4(12): e8183. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008183

Gene that Disrupts Circadian Clock Associated with Type 2 Diabetes

It has been known for a while that people who suffer from sleep disturbances often suffer raised insulin resistance. In December of 2008, researchers identified a gene, “rs1387153, near MTNR1B (which encodes the melatonin receptor 2 (MT2)), as a modulator of fasting plasma glucose.” They conclude,

Our data suggest a possible link between circadian rhythm regulation and glucose homeostasis through the melatonin signaling pathway.

Melatonin levels appear to control the body clock which, in turn, regulates the secretion of substances that modify blood pressure, hormone levels, insulin secretion and many other processes throughout the body.

A variant near MTNR1B is associated with increased fasting plasma glucose levels and type 2 diabetes risk. Nabila Bouatia-Naji et al. Nature Genetics Published online: 7 December 2008, doi:10.1038/ng.277

There’s an excellent translation of what this study means, translated into layman’s terms at Science Daily:

Body Clock Linked to Diabetes And High Blood Sugar In New Genome-wide Study

 

The Environmental Factors That Push Borderline Genes into Full-fledged Diabetes

We’ve seen so far that to get Type 2 Diabetes you seem to need to have some diabetes gene or genes, but that not everyone with these genes develops diabetes. There are what scientists call environmental factors that can push a borderline genetic case into full fledged diabetes. Let’s look now at what the research has found about what some of these environmental factors might be.

 

Your Mother’s Diet During Pregnancy May Have Caused Your Diabetes

Many “environmental factors” that scientists explore occur in the environment of the womb. Diabetes is no different, and the conditions you experienced when you were a fetus can have life-long impact on your blood sugar control.

Researchers following the children of mothers who had experienced a Dutch famine during World War II found that children of mothers who had experienced famine were far more likely to develop diabetes in later life than a control group from the same population whose mothers had been adequately fed.

Glucose tolerance in adults after prenatal exposure to famine. Ravelli AC et al.Lancet. 1998 Jan 17;351(9097):173-7.,

A study of a Chinese population found a link between low birth weight and the development of both diabetes and impaired glucose regulation (i.e. prediabetes) that was independent of “sex, age, central obesity, smoking status, alcohol consumption, dyslipidemia, family history of diabetes, and occupational status.” Low birth weight in this population may well be due to less than optimal maternal nutrition during pregnancy.

Evidence of a Relationship Between Infant Birth Weight and Later Diabetes and Impaired Glucose Regulation in a Chinese Population Xinhua Xiao et. al. Diabetes Care31:483-487, 2008.

This may not seem all that relevant to Americans whose mothers have not been exposed to famine conditions. But to conclude this is to forget how many American teens and young women suffer from eating disorders and how prevalent crash dieting is in the group of women most likely to get pregnant.

It is also true that until the 1980s obstetricians routinely warned pregnant women against gaining what is now understood to be a healthy amount of weight. When pregnant women started to gain weight, doctors often put them on highly restrictive diets which resulted in many case in the birth of underweight babies.

Your Mother’s Gestational Diabetes May Have Caused Your Diabetes

Maternal starvation is not the only pre-birth factor associated with an increased risk of diabetes. Having a well-fed mother who suffered gestational diabetes also increases a child’s risk both of obesity and of developing diabetes.

High Prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes in Adult Offspring of Women With Gestational Diabetes Mellitus or Type 1 Diabetes The role of intrauterine hyperglycemia Tine D. Clausen, MD et al. Diabetes Care 31:340-346, 2008

Pesticides and PCBs in Blood Stream Correlate with Incidence of Diabetes

A study conducted among members of New York State’s Mohawk tribe found that the odds of being diagnosed with diabetes in this population was almost 4 times higher in members who had high concentrations of PCBs in their blood serum. It was even higher for those with high concentrations of pesticides in their blood.

Diabetes in Relation to Serum Levels of Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Chlorinated Pesticides in Adult Native Americans Neculai Codru, Maria J. Schymura,Serban Negoita,Robert Rej,and David O. Carpenter.Environ Health Perspect. 2007 October; 115(10): 1442-1447.Published online 2007 July 17. doi: 10.1289/ehp.10315.

It is very important to note that there is no reason to believe this phenomenon is limited to people of Native American heritage. Upstate NY has a well-known and very serious PCB problem–remember Love Canal? And the entire population of the U.S. has been overexposed to powerful pesticides for a generation.

More evidence that obesity may be caused by exposure to toxic pollutants which damage genes comes in a study published January of 2009. This study tracked the exposure of a group of pregnant Belgian woman to several common pollutants: hexachlorobenzene, dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) , dioxin-like compounds, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). It found a correlation between exposure to PCBs and DDE and obesity by age 3, especially in children of mothers who smoked.

Intrauterine Exposure to Environmental Pollutants and Body Mass Index during the First 3 Years of Life Stijn L. Verhulst et al., Environmental Health Perspectives. Volume 117, Number 1, January 2009

These studies, which garnered no press attention at all, probably have more to tell us about the reason for the so-called “diabetes epidemic” than any other published over the last decade.

BPA and Plasticizers from Packaging Are Strongly Linked to Obesity and Insulin Resistance

BPA, the plastic used to line most metal cans has long been suspected of causing obesity. Now we know why. A study published in 2008 reported that BPA suppresses a key hormone, adiponectin, which is responsible for regulating insulin sensitivity in the body and puts people at a substantially higher risk for metabolic syndrome.

Science Daily: Toxic Plastics: Bisphenol A Linked To Metabolic Syndrome In Human Tissue

The impact of BPA on children is dramatic. Analysis of 7 years of NHANES epidemiological data found that having a high urine level of BPA doubles a child’s risk of being obese.

Bisphenol A and Chronic Disease Risk Factors in US Children. Eng, Donna et al.Pediatrics Published online August 19, 2013. doi: 10.1542/peds.2013-0106

You, and your children are getting far more BPA from canned foods than what health authorities assumed they were getting. A research report published in 2011 reported that the level of BPA actually measured in people’s bodies after they consumed canned soup turned out to be extremely high. People who ate a serving of canned soup every day for five days had BPA levels of 20.8 micrograms per liter of urine, whereas people who instead ate fresh soup had levels of 1.1 micrograms per liter.

Canned Soup Consumption and Urinary Bisphenol A: A Randomized Crossover Trial Carwile, JL et al. JAMA. November 23/30, 2011, Vol 306, No. 20

Nevertheless, the FDA caved in to industry pressure in 2012 and refused to regulate BPA claiming that, as usual, more study was needed. (FDA: BPA)

BPA is not the only toxic chemical associated with plastics that may be promoting insulin resistance. . Phthalates are compounds added to plastic to make it flexible. They rub off on our food and are found in our blood and urine. A study of 387 Hispanic and Black, New York City children who were between six and eight years old measured the phthalates in their urine and found that the more phthalates in their urine, the fatter the child was a year later.

Associations between phthalate metabolite urinary concentrations and body size measures in New York City children.
Susan L. Teitelbaum et al.Environ Res. 2012 Jan;112:186-93.

This finding was echosed by another study:

Urinary phthalates and increased insulin resistance in adolescents Trasande L, et al. Pediatrics 2013; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2012-4022.

And phthalates are everywhere. A study of 1,016 Swedes aged 70 years and older found that four phthalate metabolites were detected in the blood serum of almost all the participants. High levels of three of these were associated with the prevalence of diabetes. The researchers explain that one metabolite was mainly related to poor insulin secretion, whereas two others were related to insulin resistance. The researchers didn’t check to see whether this relationship held for prediabetes.

Circulating Levels of Phthalate Metabolites Are Associated With Prevalent Diabetes in the Elderly.Lind, MP et al. Diabetes. Published online before print April 12, 2012, doi: 10.2337/dc11-2396

Chances are very good that these same omnipresent phthalates are also causing insulin resistance and damaging insulin secretion in people whose ages fall between those of the two groups studied here.

Use of Herbicide Atrazine Maps to Obesity, Causes Insulin Resistance

A study published in April of 2009 mentions that “There is an apparent overlap between areas in the USA where the herbicide, atrazine (ATZ), is heavily used and obesity-prevalence maps of people with a BMI over 30.”

It found that when rats were given low doses of this pesticide in thier water, “Chronic administration of ATZ decreased basal metabolic rate, and increased body weight, intra-abdominal fat and insulin resistance without changing food intake or physical activity level.” In short the animals got fat even without changing their food intake. When the animals were fed a high fat,high carb diet, the weight gain was even greater.

Insulin resistance was increased too, which if it happens in people, means that people who have genetically-caused borderline capacity to secrete insulin are more likely to become diabetic when they are exposed to this chemical via food or their drinking water.

Chronic Exposure to the Herbicide, Atrazine, Causes Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Insulin Resistance PLoS ONE Published 13 Apr 2009

2,4-D A Common Herbicide Blocks Secretion of GLP-1–A Blood Sugar Lowering Gastric Peptide

In 2007 scientists at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital discovered that the intestine has receptors for sugar identical to those found on the tongue and that these receptors regulate secretion of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). GLP-1 is the peptide that is mimicked by the diabetes drug Byetta and which is kept elevated by Januvia and Onglyza. You can read about that finding in this Science Daily report:

Science Daily: Your Gut Has Taste Receptors

In November 2009, these same scientists reported that a very common herbicide 2,4 D blocked this taste receptor, effectively turning off its ability to stimulate the production GLP-1. The fibrate drugs used to lower cholesterol were also found to block the receptor.

Science Daily: Common Herbicides and Fibrates Block Nutrient-Sensing Receptor Found in Gut and Pancreas

What was even more of concern was the discovery that the ability of these compounds to block this gut receptor “did not generalize across species to the rodent form of the receptor.” The lead researcher was quoted as saying,

…most safety tests were done using animals, which have T1R3 receptors that are insensitive to these compounds,

This takes on additional meaning when you realize that most compounds released into the environment are tested only on animals, not humans. It may help explain why so many supposedly “safe” chemicals are damaging human glucose metabolisms.

Trace Amounts of Arsenic in Urine Correlate with Dramatic Rise in Diabetes

A study published in JAMA in August of 2008 found of 788 adults who had participated in the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) found those who had the most arsenic in their urine, were nearly four times more likely to have diabetes than those who had the least amount.

The study is reported here:

Arsenic Exposure and Prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes in US Adults. Ana Navas-Acien et al. JAMA. 2008;300(7):814-822.

The New York Times report about this study (no longer online) added this illuminating bit of information to the story:

Arsenic can get into drinking water naturally when minerals dissolve. It is also an industrial pollutant from coal burning and copper smelting. Utilities use filtration systems to get it out of drinking water.

Seafood also contains nontoxic organic arsenic. The researchers adjusted their analysis for signs of seafood intake and found that people with Type 2 Diabetes had 26 percent higher inorganic arsenic levels than people without Type 2 Diabetes.

How arsenic could contribute to diabetes is unknown, but prior studies have found impaired insulin secretion in pancreas cells treated with an arsenic compound.

Prescription Drugs, Especially SSRI Antidepressants Cause Obesity and Possibly Diabetes

Another important environmental factor is this: Type 2 Diabetes can be caused by some commonly prescribed drugs. Beta blockers and atypical antipsychotics like Zyprexa have been shown to cause diabetes in people who would not otherwise get it. This is discussed here.

There is some research that suggests that SSRI antidepressants may also promote diabetes. It is well known that antidepressants cause weight gain.

Spin doctors in the employ of the drug companies who sell these high-profit antidepressants have long tried to attribute the relationship between depression and obesity to depression, rather than the drugs used to treat the condition.

However, a new study published in June 2009 used data from the Canadian National Population Health Survey (NPHS), a longitudinal study of a representative cohort of household residents in Canada and tracked the incidence of obesity over ten years.

The study found that, “MDE [Major Depressive Episode] does not appear to increase the risk of obesity. …Pharmacologic treatment with antidepressants may be associated with an increased risk of obesity. [emphasis mine]. The study concluded,

Unexpectedly, significant effects were seen for serotonin-reuptake-inhibiting antidepressants [Prozac,Celexa, Lovox, Paxil, Zoloft] and venlafaxine [Effexor], but neither for tricyclic antidepressants nor antipsychotic medications.

Scott B. Patten et al. Psychother Psychosom 2009;78:182-186 (DOI: 10.1159/000209349)

Here is an article posted by the Mayo Clinic that includes the statement “weight gain is a reported side effect of nearly all antidepressant medications currently available.

Antidepressants and weight gain – Mayoclinic.com

Here is a report about a paper presented at the 2006 ADA Conference that analyzed the Antidepressant-Diabetes connection in a major Diabetes prevention study:

Medscape: Antidepressant use associated with increased type 2 diabetes risk.

Treatment for Cancer, Especially Radiation, Greatly Increases Diabetes Risk Independent of Obesity or Exercise Level

A study published in August 2009 analyzed data for 8599 survivors in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. It found that after adjusting for body mass and exercise levels, survivors of childhood cancer were 1.8 times more likely than the siblings to report that they had diabetes.

Even more significantly, those who had had full body radiation were 7.2 times more likely to have diabetes.

This raises the question of whether exposure to radiation in other contexts also causes Type 2 diabetes.

Diabetes Mellitus in Long-term Survivors of Childhood Cancer: Increased Risk Associated With Radiation Therapy: A Report for the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study.Lillian R. Meacham et al. Arch. Int. Med.Vol. 169 No. 15, Aug 10/24, 2009.

More Insight into the Effect of Genetic Flaws

Now that we have a better idea of some of the underlying physiological causes of diabetes, lets look more closely at the physiological processes that takes place as these genetic flaws push the body towards diabetes.

Insulin Resistance Develops in Thin Children of People with Type 2 Diabetes

Lab research has come up with some other intriguing findings that challenge the idea that obesity causes insulin resistance which causes diabetes. Instead, it looks like the opposite happens: Insulin resistance precedes the development of obesity.

One of these studies took two groups of thin subjects with normal blood sugar who were evenly matched for height and weight. The two groups differed only in that one group had close relatives who had developed Type 2 Diabetes, and hence, if there were a genetic component to the disorder, they were more likely to have it. The other group had no relatives with Type 2 Diabetes. The researchers then and examined the subjects’ glucose and insulin levels during a glucose tolerance test and calculated their insulin resistance. They found that the thin relatives of the people with Type 2 Diabetes already had much more insulin resistance than did the thin people with no relatives with diabetes.

Insulin resistance in the first-degree relatives of persons with Type 2 Diabetes. Straczkowski M et al. Med Sci Monit. 2003 May;9(5):CR186-90.

This result was echoed by a second study published in November of 2009.

That study compared detailed measurements of insulin secretion and resistance in 187 offspring of people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes against 509 controls. Subjects were matched with controls for age, gender and BMI. It concluded:

The first-degree offspring of type 2 diabetic patients show insulin resistance and beta cell dysfunction in response to oral glucose challenge. Beta cell impairment exists in insulin-sensitive offspring of patients with type 2 diabetes, suggesting beta cell dysfunction to be a major defect determining diabetes development in diabetic offspring.

Beta cell (dys)function in non-diabetic offspring of diabetic patients M. Stadler et al. Diabetologia Volume 52, Number 11 / November, 2009, pp 2435-2444. doi 10.1007/s00125-009-1520-7

Mitochondrial Dysfunction is Found in Lean Relatives of People with Type 2 Diabetes

One reason insulin resistance might precede obesity was explained by a landmark 2004 study which looked at the cells of the “healthy, young, lean” but insulin-resistant relatives of people with Type 2 Diabetes and found that their mitochondria, the “power plant of the cells” that is the part of the cell that burns glucose, appeared to have a defect. While the mitochondria of people with no relatives with diabetes burned glucose well, the mitochondria of the people with an inherited genetic predisposition to diabetes were not able to burn off glucose as efficiently, but instead caused the glucose they could not burn and to be stored in the cells as fat.

Impaired mitochondrial activity in the insulin-resistant offspring of patients with type 2 diabetes. Petersen KF et al. New England J Med 2004 Feb 12; 350(7);639-41

More Evidence that Abnormal Insulin Resistance Precedes Weight Gain and Probably Causes It

A study done by the same researchers at Yale University School of Medicine who discovered the mitochondrial problem we just discussed was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) in July 2007. It reports on a study that compared energy usage by lean people who were insulin resistant and lean people who were insulin sensitive.

The role of skeletal muscle insulin resistance in the pathogenesis of the metabolic syndrome Petersen,KF et al. PNAS July 31, 2007 vol. 104 no. 31 12587-12594.

Using new imaging technologies, the researchers found that lean but insulin resistant subjects converted glucose from high carbohydrate meals into triglycerides–i.e. fat. Lean insulin-sensitive subjects, in contrast, stored the same glucose in the form of muscle and liver glycogen.

The researchers conclude that:

the insulin resistance, in these young, lean, insulin resistant individuals, was independent of abdominal obesity and circulating plasma adipocytokines, suggesting that these abnormalities develop later in the development of the metabolic syndrome.”

In short, obesity looked to be a result, not a cause of the metabolic flaw that led these people to store carbohydrate they ate in the form of fat rather than burn it for energy.

The researchers suggested controlling insulin resistance with exercise. It would also be a good idea for people who are insulin resistant, or have a family history of Type 2 Diabetes to cut back on their carb intake, knowing that the glucose from the carbs they eat is more likely to turn into fat.

Beta Cells Fail to Reproduce in People with Diabetes

A study of pancreas autopsies that compared the pancreases of thin and fat people with diabetes with those of thin and fat normal people found that fat, insulin-resistant people who did not develop diabetes apparently were able to grow new beta-cells to produce the extra insulin they needed. In contrast, the beta cells of people who developed diabetes were unable to reproduce. This failure was independent of their weight.

Beta-Cell Deficit and Increased Beta-Cell Apoptosis in Humans With Type 2 Diabetes. Alexandra E. Butler, et al. Diabetes 52:102-110, 2003

Once Blood Sugars Rise They Impair a Muscle Gene that Regulates Insulin Sensitivity

Another piece of the puzzle falls into place thanks to a research study published on Feb 8, 2008.

Downregulation of Diacylglycerol Kinase Delta Contributes to Hyperglycemia-Induced Insulin Resistance. Alexander V. Chibalin et. al. Cell, Volume 132, Issue 3, 375-386, 8 February 2008.

As reported in Diabetes in Control (which had access to the full text of the study)

The research team identified a “fat-burning” gene, the products of which are required to maintain the cells insulin sensitivity. They also discovered that this gene is reduced in muscle tissue from people with high blood sugar and type 2-diabetes. In the absence of the enzyme that is made by this gene, muscles have reduced insulin sensitivity, impaired fat burning ability, which leads to an increased risk of developing obesity.

“The expression of this gene is reduced when blood sugar rises, but activity can be restored if blood sugar is controlled by pharmacological treatment or exercise”, says Professor Juleen Zierath. “Our results underscore the importance of tight regulation of blood sugar for people with diabetes.”

In short, once your blood sugar rises past a certain point, you become much more insulin resistant. This, in turn, pushes up your blood sugar more.

A New Model For How Diabetes Develops

These research findings open up a new way of understanding the relationship between obesity and diabetes.

Perhaps people with the genetic condition underlying Type 2 Diabetes inherit a defect in the beta cells that make those cells unable to reproduce normally to replace cells damaged by the normal wear and tear of life.Or perhaps exposure to an environmental toxin damages the related genes.

Perhaps, too, a defect in the way that their cells burn glucose inclines them to turn excess blood sugar into fat rather than burning it off as a person with normal mitochondria might do.

Put these facts together and you suddenly get a fatal combination that is almost guaranteed to make a person fat.

Studies have shown that blood sugars only slightly over 100 mg/dl are high enough to render beta cells dysfunctional.

Beta-cell dysfunction and glucose intolerance: results from the San Antonio metabolism (SAM) study. Gastaldelli A, et al. Diabetologia. 2004 Jan;47(1):31-9. Epub 2003 Dec 10.

In a normal person who had the ability to grow new beta cells, any damaged beta cells would be replaced by new ones, which would keep the blood sugar at levels low enough to avoid further damage. But the beta cells of a person with a genetic heritage of diabetes are unable to reproduce So once blood sugars started to rise, more beta cells would succumb to the resulting glucose toxicity, and that would, in turn raise blood sugar higher.

As the concentration of glucose in their blood rose, these people would not be able to do what a normal person does with excess blood sugar–which is to burn it for energy. Instead their defective mitochondria will cause the excess glucose to be stored as fat. As this fat gets stored in the muscles it causes the insulin resistance so often observed in people with diabetes–long before the individual begins to gain visible weight. This insulin resistance puts a further strain on the remaining beta cells by making the person’s cells less sensitive to insulin. Since the person with an inherited tendency to diabetes’ pancreas can’t grow the extra beta cells that a normal person could grow when their cells become insulin resistant this leads to ever escalating blood sugars which further damage the insulin-producing cells, and end up in the inevitable decline into diabetes.

Low Fat Diets Promote the Deterioration that Leads to Diabetes in People with the Genetic Predisposition

In the past two decades, when people who were headed towards diabetes begin to gain weight, they were advised to eat a low fat diet. Unfortunately, this low fat diet is also a high carbohydrate diet–one that exacerbates blood sugar problems by raising blood sugars dangerously high, destroying more insulin-producing beta-cells, and catalyzing the storage of more fat in the muscles of people with dysfunctional mitochondria. Though they may have stuck to diets to low fat for weeks or even months these people were tormented by relentless hunger and when they finally went off their ineffective diets, they got fatter. Unfortunately, when they reported these experiences to their doctors, they were almost universally accused of lying about their eating habits.

It has only been documented in medical research during the past two years that that many patients who have found it impossible to lose weight on the low fat high carbohydrate can lose weight–often dramatically–on a low carbohydrate diet while improving rather than harming their blood lipids.

Very low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets affect fasting lipids and postprandial lipemia differently in overweight men. Sharman MJ, et al. J Nutr. 2004 Apr;134(4):880-5.

An isoenergetic very low carbohydrate diet improves serum HDL cholesterol and triacylglycerol concentrations, the total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol ratio and postprandial lipemic responses compared with a low fat diet in normal weight, normolipidemic women. Volek JS, et al. J Nutr. 2003 Sep;133(9):2756-61.

The low carb diet does two things. By limiting carbohydrate, it limits the concentration of blood glucose which often is enough to bring moderately elevated blood sugars down to normal or near normal levels. This means that there will be little excess glucose left to be converted to fat and stored.

It also gets around the mitochondrial defect in processing glucose by keeping blood sugars low so that the body switches into a mode where it burns ketones rather than glucose for muscle fuel.

Relentless Hunger Results from Roller Coaster Blood Sugars

There is one last reason why you may believe that obesity caused your diabetes, when, in fact, it was undiagnosed diabetes that caused your obesity.

Long before a person develops diabetes, they go through a phase where they have what doctors called “impaired glucose tolerance.” This means that after they eat a meal containing carbohydrates, their blood sugar rockets up and may stay high for an hour or two before dropping back to a normal level.

What most people don’t know is that when blood sugar moves swiftly up or down most people will experience intense hunger. The reasons for this are not completely clear. But what is certain is that this intense hunger caused by blood sugar swings can develop years before a person’s blood sugar reaches the level where they’ll be diagnosed as diabetic.

This relentless hunger, in fact, is often the very first diabetic symptom a person will experience, though most doctors do not recognize this hunger as a symptom. Instead, if you complain of experiencing intense hunger doctors may suggest you need an antidepressant or blame your weight gain, if you are female, on menopausal changes.

This relentless hunger caused by impaired glucose tolerance almost always leads to significant weight gain and an increase in insulin resistance. However, because it can take ten years between the time your blood sugar begins to rise steeply after meals and the time when your fasting blood sugar is abnormal enough for you to be diagnosed with diabetes, most people are, indeed, very fat at the time of diagnosis.

With better diagnosis of diabetes (discussed here) we would be able to catch early diabetes before people gained the enormous amounts of weight now believed to cause the syndrome. But at least now people with diabetic relatives who are at risk for developing diabetes can go a long way towards preventing the development of obesity by controlling their carbohydrate intake long before they begin to put on weight.

You CAN Undo the Damage

No matter what your genetic heritage or the environmental insults your genes have survived, you can take steps right now to lower your blood sugar, eliminate the secondary insulin resistance caused by high blood sugars, and start the process that leads back to health. The pages linked here will show you how.

How To Get Your Blood Sugar Under Control

What Can You Eat When You Are Cutting The Carbs?

What is a Normal Blood Sugar

Research Connecting Blood Sugar Level with Organ Damage

The 5% Club: They Normalized Their Blood Sugar and So Can You

Read Full Post »

Obesity Issues

Posted in Cardiovascular Research, Chemical Biology and its relations to Metabolic Disease, Chemical Genetics, Clinical & Translational, Curation, Diabetes Mellitus, Disease Biology, Endocrine Diseases, Epigenetics and Cardiovascular Risks, Gene Regulation, Genomic Endocrinology, Lipid metabolism, Lipids, Liver & Digestive Diseases Research, Metabolism, Nutrition, Nutrition Disorders, Nutritional Supplements: Atherogenesis, lipid metabolism, Obesity, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Obesity Issues

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator

LPBI

 

The Changing Face of Obesity

Science tells us obesity is a chronic disease. Why does the outmoded and injurious notion that it is a problem of willpower persist?

By Joseph Proietto | November 1, 2015   http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/44288/title/The-Changing-Face-of-Obesity/

In Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy the narrator meets a man named Ciacco who had been sent to Hell for the “Damning sin of Gluttony.” According to Catholic theology, in order to end up in Hell one must willfully commit a serious sin. So Dante believed that fat people chose to be fat. This antiquated view of the cause of obesity is still widespread, even among medical professionals. The consequences of this misconception are significant, because it forms the basis for the discrimination suffered by the obese; for the wasting of scarce resources in attempts to change lifestyle habits by public education; and for the limited availability of subsidized obesity treatments.

http://www.the-scientist.com/November2015/critic1.jpg

While obesity is often labeled a lifestyle disease, poor lifestyle choices alone account for only a 6 to 8 kg weight gain. The body has a powerful negative feedback system to prevent excessive weight gain. The strongest inhibitor of hunger, the hormone leptin, is made by fat cells. A period of increased energy intake will result in fat deposition, which will increase leptin production. Leptin suppresses hunger and increases energy expenditure. This slows down weight gain. To become obese, it may be necessary to harbor a genetic difference that makes the individual resistant to the action of leptin.

Evidence from twin and adoption studies suggests that obesity has a genetic basis, and over the past two decades a number of genes associated with obesity have been described. The most common genetic defect in European populations leading to severe obesity is due to mutations in the gene coding for the melanocortin 4 receptor (MCR4). Still, this defect can explain severe obesity in only approximately 6 percent to 7 percent of cases (J Clin Invest, 106:271-79, 2000). Other genes have been discovered that can cause milder increases in weight; for example, variants of just one gene (FTO) can explain up to 3 kg of weight variation between individuals (Science, 316:889-94, 2007).

Genes do not directly cause weight gain. Rather, genes influence the desire for food and the feeling of satiety. In an environment with either poor access to food or access to only low-calorie food, obesity may not develop even in persons with a genetic predisposition. When there is an abundance of food and a sedentary lifestyle, however, an obesity-prone person will experience greater hunger and reduced satiety, increasing caloric intake and weight gain.

Since the 1980s, there has been a rapid rise in the prevalence of obesity worldwide, a trend that likely results from a variety of complex causes. There is increasing evidence, for example, that the development of obesity on individual or familial levels may be influenced by environmental experiences that occur in early life. For example, if a mother is malnourished during early pregnancy, this results in epigenetic changes to genes involved in the set points for hunger and satiety in the developing child. These changes may then become fixed, resulting in a tendency towards obesity in the offspring.

The biological basis of obesity is further highlighted by the vigorous defense of weight following weight loss. There are at least 10 circulating hormones that modulate hunger. Of these, only one has been confirmed as a hunger-inducing hormone (ghrelin), and it is made and released by the stomach. In contrast, nine hormones suppress hunger, including CCK, PYY, GLP-1, oxyntomodulin, and uroguanylin from the small bowel; leptin from fat cells; and insulin, amylin, and pancreatic polypeptide from the pancreas.

 

After weight loss, regardless of the diet employed, there are changes in circulating hormones involved in the regulation of body weight. Ghrelin levels tend to increase and levels of multiple appetite-suppressing hormones decrease. There is also a subjective increase in appetite. Researchers have shown that even after three years, these hormonal changes persist (NEJM, 365:1597-604, 2011; Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, 2:954-62, 2014). This explains why there is a high rate of weight regain after diet-induced weight loss.

Given that the physiological responses to weight loss predispose people to regain that weight, obesity must be considered a chronic disease. Data show that those who successfully maintain their weight after weight loss do so by remaining vigilant and constantly applying techniques to oppose weight regain. These techniques may involve strict diet and exercise practices and/or pharmacotherapy.

It is imperative for society to move away from a view that obesity is simply a lifestyle issue and to accept that it is a chronic disease. Such a change would not only relieve the stigma of obesity but would also empower politicians, scientists and clinicians to tackle the problem more effectively.

Joseph Proietto was the inaugural Sir Edward Dunlop Medical Research Foundation Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Austin Health at the University of Melbourne in Australia. He is a researcher and clinician investigating and treating obesity and type 2 diabetes.

 

 

A Weighty Anomaly

Why do some obese people actually experience health benefits?

By Jyoti Madhusoodanan | November 1, 2015     http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/44304/title/A-Weighty-Anomaly/

http://www.the-scientist.com/November2015/notebook4.jpg

THE ENDOCRINE THEORY: Some researchers have posited that fat cells may secrete molecules that affect glucose homeostasis in muscle or liver tissue.COURTESY OF MITCHELL LAZAR

In the early 19th century, Belgian mathematician Adolphe Quetelet was obsessed with a shape: the bell curve. While helping with a population census, Quetelet proposed that the spread of human traits such as height and weight followed this trend, also known as a Gaussian or normal distribution. On a quest to define a “normal man,” he showed that human height and weight data fell along his beloved bell curves, and in 1823 devised the “Quetelet Index”—more familiar to us today as the BMI, or body mass index, a ratio of weight to height.

Nearly two centuries later, clinicians, researchers, and fitness instructors continue to rely on this metric to pigeonhole people into categories: underweight, healthy, overweight, or obese. But Quetelet never intended the metric to serve as a way to define obesity. And now, a growing body of evidence suggests these categories fail to accurately reflect the health risks—or benefits—of being overweight.

Although there is considerable debate surrounding the prevalence of metabolically healthy obesity, when obesity is defined in terms of BMI (a BMI of 30 or higher), estimates suggest that about 10 percent of adults in the U.S. are obese yet metabolically healthy, while as many as 80 percent of those with a normal BMI may be metabolically unhealthy, with signs of insulin resistance and poor circulating lipid levels, even if they suffer no obvious ill effects. “If all we know about a person is that they have a certain body weight at a certain height, that’s not enough information to know their health risks from obesity,” says health-science researcher Paul McAuley of Winston-Salem State University. “We need better indicators of metabolic health.”

The dangers of being overweight, such as a higher risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and other complications, are well known. But some obese individuals—dubbed the “fat fit”—appear to fare better on many measures of health when they’re heavier. Studies have found lower mortality rates, better response to hemodialysis in chronic kidney disease, and lower incidence of dementia in such people. Mortality, it’s been found, correlates with obesity in a U-shaped curve (J Sports Sci, 29:773-82, 2011). So does extra heft help or hurt?

To answer that question, researchers are trying to elucidate the metabolic reasons for this obesity paradox.

In a recent study, Harvard University epidemiologist Goodarz Danaei and his colleagues analyzed data from nine studies involving a total of more than 58,000 participants to tease apart how obesity and other well-known metabolic risk factors influence the risk of coronary heart disease. Controlling these other risk factors, such as hypertension or high cholesterol, with medication is simpler than curbing obesity itself, Danaei explains. “If you control a person’s obesity you get rid of some health risks, but if you control hypertension or diabetes, that also reduces health risks, and you can do the latter much more easily right now.”

Danaei’s team assessed BMI and metabolic markers such as systolic blood pressure, total serum cholesterol, and fasting blood glucose. The three metabolic markers only explained half of the increased risk of heart disease across all study participants. In obese individuals, the other half appeared to be mediated by fat itself, perhaps via inflammatory markers or other indirect mechanisms (Epidemiology, 26:153-62, 2015). While Danaei’s study was aimed at understanding how obesity hurts health, the results also uncovered unknown mechanisms by which excess adipose tissue might exert its effects. This particular study revealed obesity’s negative effects, but might these unknown mechanisms hold clues that explain the obesity paradox?

Other researchers have suggested additional possibilities—for example, that inflammatory markers such as TNF-α help combat conditions such as chronic kidney disease, or that obesity makes a body more capable of making changes to, and tolerating changes in, blood flow depending on systemic needs (Am J Clin Nutr, 81:543-54, 2005).

According to endocrinologist Mitchell Lazar at the University of Pennsylvania, the key to explaining the obesity paradox may be two nonexclusive ways fat tissue is hypothesized to function. One mechanism, termed the endocrine theory, suggests that fat cells secrete, or don’t secrete enough of, certain molecules that influence glucose homeostasis in other tissues, such as muscle or liver. The first such hormone to be discovered was leptin; later studies reported several other adipocyte-secreted factors, including adiponectin, resistin, and various cytokines.

The other hypothesis, dubbed the spillover theory, suggests that storing lipids in fat cells has some pluses. Adipose tissue might sequester fat-soluble endotoxins, and produce lipoproteins that can bind to and clear harmful lipids from circulation. When fat cells fill up, however, these endotoxins are stashed in the liver, pancreas, or other organs—and that’s when trouble begins. In “fat fit” people, problems typically linked to obesity such as high cholesterol or diabetes may be avoided simply because their adipocytes mop up more endotoxins.

“In this model, one could imagine that if you could store even more fat in fat cells, you could be even more obese, but you might be protected from problems [associated with] obesity because you’re protecting the other tissues from filling up with lipids that cause problems,” says Lazar. “This may be the most popular current model to explain the fat fit.”

Although obesity greatly increases the risk of type 2 diabetes—up to 93-fold in postmenopausal women, for example—not all obese people suffer from the condition. Similarly, a certain subtype of individuals with “normal” BMIs are at greater risk of developing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes than others with BMIs in the same range. Precisely what distinguishes these two cohorts is still unclear. “Just as important as explaining why some obese people don’t get diabetes is to explain why other subgroups—normal-weight people or those with lipodystrophy—sometimes get it,” Lazar says. “If there are multiple subtypes of obesity and diabetes, can we figure out genetic aspects or biomarkers that cause one of these phenotypes and not the other?”

To Lazar, McAuley, and other researchers, it’s increasingly evident that BMI may not be that metric. Finding better ways to assess a healthy weight, however, has proven challenging. Researchers have tested measures, such as the body shape index (ABSI) or the waist-hip ratio, which attempt to gauge visceral fat—considered to be more metabolically harmful than fat in other body locations. However, these metrics have yet to be implemented widely in clinics, and few are as simple to understand as the BMI (Science, 341:856-58, 2013).

Independent of metrics, however, the health message regarding weight is still unanimous: exercise and healthy dietary choices benefit everyone. “At a certain point, despite all the so-called fit-fat people, the demographics say that there’s a huge risk of diabetes and heart disease at very high BMI,” notes Lazar. “We can’t assume we’ll be one of the lucky ones who will have a BMI in the obese category but will still be protected from heart disease.”

Correction (November 2): The original version of this article misattributed the pull quote above. The attribution for this quote has been corrected, and The Scientist regrets the error.

 

 

THE HEALTH RISK OF OBESITY—BETTER METRICS IMPERATIVE

 Science 23 Aug 2013;  341(6148): 856–858     DOI: http://dx.doi.org:/10.1126/science.1241244
Obesity paradoxes.
McAuley PA1, Blair SN.  Author information
J Sports Sci. 2011 May;29(8):773-82.    http://dx.doi.org:/10.1080/02640414.2011.553965.
In this review, we examine the original obesity paradox phenomenon (i.e. in cardiovascular disease populations, obese patients survive better), as well as three other related paradoxes (pre-obesity, “fat but fit” theory, and “healthy” obesity). An obesity paradox has been reported in a range of cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular conditions. Pre-obesity (defined as a body mass index of 25.0-29.9 kg · m⁻²) presents another paradox. Whereas “overweight” implies increased risk, it is in fact associated with decreased mortality risk compared with normal weight. Another paradox concerns the observation than when fitness is taken into account, the mortality risk associated with obesity is offset. The final paradox under consideration is the presence of a sizeable subset of obese individuals who are otherwise healthy. Consequently, a large segment of the overweight and obese population is not at increased risk for premature death. It appears therefore that low cardiorespiratory fitness and inactivity are a greater health threat than obesity, suggesting that more emphasis should be placed on increasing leisure time physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness as the main strategy for reducing mortality risk in the broad population of overweight and obese adults.
Obesity, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular disease.
Reaven G1, Abbasi F, McLaughlin T.  Author information
Recent Prog Horm Res. 2004;59:207-23.
The ability of insulin to stimulate glucose disposal varies more than six-fold in apparently healthy individuals. The one third of the population that is most insulin resistant is at greatly increased risk to develop cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, polycystic ovary disease, and certain forms of cancer. Between 25-35% of the variability in insulin action is related to being overweight. The importance of the adverse effects of excess adiposity is apparent in light of the evidence that more than half of the adult population in the United States is classified as being overweight/obese, as defined by a body mass index greater than 25.0 kg/m(2). The current epidemic of overweight/obesity is most-likely related to a combination of increased caloric intake and decreased energy expenditure. In either instance, the fact that CVD risk is increased as individuals gain weight emphasizes the gravity of the health care dilemma posed by the explosive increase in the prevalence of overweight/obesity in the population at large. Given the enormity of the problem, it is necessary to differentiate between the CVD risk related to obesity per se, as distinct from the fact that the prevalence of insulin resistance and compensatory hyperinsulinemia are increased in overweight/obese individuals. Although the majority of individuals in the general population that can be considered insulin resistant are also overweight/obese, not all overweight/obese persons are insulin resistant. Furthermore, the cluster of abnormalities associated with insulin resistance – namely, glucose intolerance, hyperinsulinemia, dyslipidemia, and elevated plasma C-reactive protein concentrations — is limited to the subset of overweight/obese individuals that are also insulin resistant. Of greater clinical relevance is the fact that significant improvement in these metabolic abnormalities following weight loss is seen only in the subset of overweight/obese individuals that are also insulin resistant. In view of the large number of overweight/obese subjects at potential risk to be insulin resistant/hyperinsulinemic (and at increased CVD risk), and the difficulty in achieving weight loss, it seems essential to identify those overweight/obese individuals who are also insulin resistant and will benefit the most from weight loss, then target this population for the most-intensive efforts to bring about weight loss.
Long-Term Persistence of Hormonal Adaptations to Weight Loss

Priya Sumithran, Luke A. Prendergast, Elizabeth Delbridge, Katrina Purcell, Arthur Shulkes, Adamandia Kriketos, and Joseph Proietto

N Engl J Med 2011; 365:1597-1604   October 27, 2011http://dx.doi.org:/10.1056/NEJMoa1105816

After weight loss, changes in the circulating levels of several peripheral hormones involved in the homeostatic regulation of body weight occur. Whether these changes are transient or persist over time may be important for an understanding of the reasons behind the high rate of weight regain after diet-induced weight loss.

Weight loss (mean [±SE], 13.5±0.5 kg) led to significant reductions in levels of leptin, peptide YY, cholecystokinin, insulin (P<0.001 for all comparisons), and amylin (P=0.002) and to increases in levels of ghrelin (P<0.001), gastric inhibitory polypeptide (P=0.004), and pancreatic polypeptide (P=0.008). There was also a significant increase in subjective appetite (P<0.001). One year after the initial weight loss, there were still significant differences from baseline in the mean levels of leptin (P<0.001), peptide YY (P<0.001), cholecystokinin (P=0.04), insulin (P=0.01), ghrelin (P<0.001), gastric inhibitory polypeptide (P<0.001), and pancreatic polypeptide (P=0.002), as well as hunger (P<0.001).

Full Text of Results…

One year after initial weight reduction, levels of the circulating mediators of appetite that encourage weight regain after diet-induced weight loss do not revert to the levels recorded before weight loss. Long-term strategies to counteract this change may be needed to prevent obesity relapse. (Funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and others; ClinicalTrials.gov number,NCT00870259.)

Full Text of Discussion..

What’s new in endocrinology and diabetes mellitus

FTO variant and obesity (September 2015)

Large genome wide association studies have demonstrated that variants in the FTO gene have the strongest association with obesity risk in the general population, but the mechanism of the association has been unclear. However, a nonocoding causal variant in FTO has now been identified that changes the function of adipocytes from energy utilization (beige fat) to energy storage (white fat) with a fivefold decrease in mitochondrial thermogenesis [17]. When the effect of the variant was blocked in genetically engineered mice, thermogenesis increased and weight gain did not occur, despite eating a high-fat diet. Blocking the gene’s effect in human adipocytes also increased energy utilization. This observation has important implications for potential new anti-obesity drugs. (See “Pathogenesis of obesity”, section on ‘FTO variants’.)

Liraglutide for the treatment of obesity (July 2015)

Along with diet, exercise, and behavior modification, drug therapy may be a helpful component of treatment for select patients who are overweight or obese. Liraglutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist, used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, and can promote weight loss in patients with diabetes, as well as those without diabetes.

●In a randomized trial in nondiabetic patients who had a body mass index (BMI) of ≥30 kg/m2 or ≥27 kg/m2 with dyslipidemia and/or hypertension, liraglutide 3 mg once daily, compared with placebo, resulted in greater mean weight loss (-8.0 versus -2.6 kg with placebo) [18]. In addition, cardiometabolic risk factors, glycated hemoglobin (A1C), and quality of life improved modestly. Gastrointestinal side effects transiently affected at least 40 percent of the liraglutide group and were the most common reason for withdrawal (6.4 percent). Liraglutide is an option for select overweight or obese patients, although gastrointestinal side effects (nausea, vomiting) and the need for a daily injection may limit the use of this drug. (See “Obesity in adults: Drug therapy”, section on ‘Liraglutide’.)

●In a trial designed specifically to evaluate the effect of liraglutide on weight loss in overweight or obese patients with type 2 diabetes (mean weight 106 kg), liraglutide, compared with placebo, resulted in greater mean weight loss (-6.4 kg and -5.0 kg for liraglutide 3 mg and 1.8 mg, respectively, versus -2.2 kg for placebo) [19]. Treatment with liraglutide was associated with better glycemic control, a reduction in the use of oral hypoglycemic agents, and a reduction in systolic blood pressure. Although liraglutide is not considered as initial therapy for the majority of patients with type 2 diabetes, it is an option for select overweight or obese patients with type 2 diabetes who fail initial therapy with lifestyle intervention and metformin.  (See “Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus”, section on ‘Weight loss’.)

The Skinny on Fat Cells

Bruce Spiegelman has spent his career at the forefront of adipocyte differentiation and metabolism.

By Anna Azvolinsky | November 1, 2015

http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/44312/title/The-Skinny-on-Fat-Cells/

Bruce Spiegelman
Stanley J. Korsmeyer Professor of Cell Biology
and Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Director, Center for Energy Metabolism
and Chronic
Disease, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston

It’s hard to know whether you have the right stuff to be a scientist, but I had a passion for the research,” says Bruce Spiegelman, professor of cell biology at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. After receiving his PhD in biochemistry from Princeton University in 1978, Spiegelman sent an application to do postdoctoral research to just one lab. “I wasn’t thinking I should apply to five different labs. I just marched forward more or less in a straight line,” he says. Spiegelman did know that he had no financial backup and depended on research fellowships throughout the early phase of his science career. “I thought it was fantastic, and still think so, that a PhD in science is supported by the government. I certainly appreciated that, because many of my friends in the humanities had to support themselves by cobbling together fellowships and teaching every semester, whereas we didn’t face similar challenges in the sciences.”

Since his graduate student days, Spiegelman has realized his potential, pioneering the study of adipose tissue biology and metabolism. He was introduced to the field in Howard Green’s laboratory, then at MIT, where Spiegelman began his one and only postdoc in 1978. Green had recently developed a system for culturing adipose cells and asked Spiegelman if he wanted to study fat cell differentiation. “I knew nothing about adipose tissue, but I was really interested in any model of how one cell switches to another. Whether skin or fat didn’t matter too much to me, because I was not coming at this from the perspective of physiology but from the perspective of how do these switches work at a molecular level?”

Spiegelman has stuck with studying the biology and differentiation of fat cells for more than 30 years. While looking for the master transcriptional regulator of fat development—which his laboratory found in 1994—Spiegelman’s group also discovered one of the first examples of a nuclear oncogene that functions as a transcription factor, and, more recently, the team found that brown fat and white fat come from completely different origins and that brown and beige fat are distinct cell types. Spiegelman was also the first to provide evidence for the connection between inflammation, insulin resistance, and fat tissue.

Here, Spiegelman talks about his strong affinity for the East Coast, his laboratory’s search for molecules that can crank up brown fat production and activity, and the culture of his laboratory’s weekly meeting.

Spiegelman Sets Out

First publication. Spiegelman grew up in Massapequa, New York, a town on Long Island. “Birds, insects, fish, and animals were fascinating to me. As a kid, I imagined I would be a wildlife ranger,” he says. Spiegelman and his brother were the first in their family to attend college; Spiegelman entered the College of William and Mary in 1970 thinking he would major in psychology. But before taking his first psychology course, he had to take a biology course, really loved it, and switched his major. For his senior thesis, he chose one of the few labs that did biochemistry-related research. He studied cultures of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus ornatus in which he induced the upregulation of a metabolic enzyme. Spiegelman applied a calculus transformation that related the age of the culture to the age of individual cells, something that had not been previously done. The work earned him his first first-author publication in 1975. “It was not a great breakthrough, but I think it showed that I was maybe applying myself more than the typical undergraduate.”

Full steam ahead. “My interest in laboratory research was intense. Even though it was not particularly inspired work, the first-author publication in a college where not many of the professors published a lot gave me a lot of confidence. It was probably out of proportion to the quality of the actual work.” That confidence and Spiegelman’s interest in the chemistry of living things led him to pursue a PhD in biochemistry at Princeton University. “Very early on, I felt that I couldn’t understand biology if it didn’t go to the molecular level. To me, just describing how an animal lived without understanding how it worked was very unsatisfying. I think it was one of the best decisions that I made in my life, to do a PhD in biochemistry,” he says, “because if you really want to understand living systems, you are very limited in how you can understand them without having a strong background in biochemistry because these are, essentially, chemical systems.”

Embracing molecular biology. Spiegelman initially joined Arthur Pardee’s laboratory, but switched when Pardee left Princeton for Harvard University in 1975. Because he was already collaborating with Marc Kirschner, a cell biologist and biochemist who studies the regulation of the cell cycle and how the cytoskeleton works, it was an easy transition to transfer to the new laboratory. In Kirschner’s group, Spiegelman became the cell biologist among many protein biochemists working on microtubule assembly in vitro. Rather than understanding how the proteins fit together to form the filamentous structures, Spiegelman wanted to understand what controlled their assembly inside cells. Working in mammalian cells, Spiegelman published three consecutive Cell papers on how microtubule assembly occurs in vivo. The firstpaper, from 1977, demonstrated that a nucleotide functions to stabilize the tubulin molecule rather than to regulate tubulin assembly in vivo.

Spiegelman Simmers

A new tool. For his next move, Spiegelman wanted to marry his background in biochemistry and molecular biology with a good cellular model system. He became interested in differentiation at the end of his PhD, while studying how the cytoskeleton is reorganized during neural differentiation, and settled on Green’s MIT laboratory for his postdoc. Green had developed a way to study both skin and fat cell differentiation. Again, Spiegelman was the odd man out, working on the molecular biology of fat cell differentiation while most of the graduate students and postdocs focused on the cellular biology of skin cell differentiation. While there, Spiegelman learned how to clone cDNA—a new method that some researchers thought was just another new fad, he says. “I thought it was pretty obvious that this was a tool that would be a game changer. I could see how I could clone some of the cDNAs and genes that were regulated in the fat cell lineage and then try to understand the regulation of these genes.”

Setting the stage. Spiegelman demonstrated that cAMP regulates the synthesis of certain enzymes in fat cells during differentiation. But while this was the most influential paper from his postdoc, says Spiegelman, it was his demonstration of cloning mRNAs from adipocytes, published in 1983, that set the stage for cloning fat-selective genes. The work, mostly done when Spiegelman was already a new faculty member at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, stemmed from his learning molecular cloning in Phillip Sharp’s lab at MIT and Bryan Roberts’s lab at Harvard. “This was the raw material from which we eventually cloned PPARγ and showed it to be the master regulator of fat [cell] development.”

Roots. Spiegelman became an assistant professor at the Harvard Medical School in 1982, when he was not yet 30. Although he had entertained the idea of moving to the West Coast with his wife, whom he had met at Princeton where she obtained a PhD in French literature, Spiegelman says he is really an East Coaster at heart. “My wife and I came to love Boston and were very comfortable there. Our families were both in New York, which was close, but not too close, and we really enjoyed the culture and pace of Boston; it was more ‘us.’ We really liked to visit California but didn’t particularly want to move there. We’re both real Northeastern people.”

Relating to Sisyphus. The transition from doing a postdoc to setting up his own laboratory was “very exciting and terribly stressful,” says Spiegelman. “When I think back, I always tried to be professional with my laboratory, but I was so stressed at suddenly being on my own with no management training.” The people resources he had encountered in his graduate and postdoctoral training labs were also not there yet, and he says his first publication as a principal investigator was like pushing a rock up a hill. But eventually, Spiegelman’s lab built a reputation and reached a critical mass of talented people who advanced the science. Again in 1983, Spiegelman produced a publication showing that morphological manipulation can affect gene expression and adipose differentiation.

End goal. Spiegelman’s goal was to find a master molecule that  orchestrates the conversion of adipocyte precursor cells into bona fide fat cells. Piece by piece, his lab identified the enhancers, promoters, and other regulatory elements involved in adipocyte differentiation. In 1994, graduate student Peter Tontonoz finallyfound that the PPARγ gene, inserted via a retroviral vector into fibroblasts, could induce the cells to become adipose cells. “It took 10 years,” Spiegelman says. Along the way, the laboratory found that c-fos, the product of a famous nuclear oncogene, bound to the promoters of fat-specific genes and worked as a transcription factor. “It was not really known how nuclear oncogenes worked. This was one of the first papers showing that these oncogenes bound to gene promoters and were transcription factors.”

A wider scope. In 1993, graduate student Gökhan Hotamisligil found that tumor necrosis factor-alpha(TNF-α), is induced in the fat tissue of rodent models of obesity and diabetes. The paper sparked the formation of the field of immunometabolism and resulted in the expansion of Spiegelman’s lab into the physiology arena, partly thanks to the guidance of C. Ronald Kahn and Jeff Flier, who both study metabolism and diabetes. But the work initially encountered pushback, says Spiegelman, partly because it was the merging of two fields.

Spiegelman Scales Up

Fat color palette. Brown fat tissue, abundant in infants but scarce in adults, is a metabolically active form of fat that is chock full of mitochondria and is found in pockets in the body distinct from white fat tissue.Pere Puigserver, then a postdoc in Spiegelman’s lab, found that the coactivator PCG-1, binding to PPARγ and other nuclear receptors, could stimulate mitochondrial biogenesis. The PCG-1 gene is turned on by stimuli such as exercise or a cold environment. Later, postdoc Patrick Seale, Spiegelman, and their colleagues showed brown fat cells derive from the same lineage that gives rise to skeletal muscle. “This was a big surprise, maybe the biggest surprise we ever uncovered in the lab,” says Spiegelman.

A paler shade of brown. More recently, in 2012, Spiegelman’s laboratory showed that within adult white adipose tissue, there are pockets of a yet another type of fat tissue that he called beige fat. “I think the evidence is very good from rodents that if you activate brown and beige fat, you get metabolic benefit both in obesity and diabetes. So the question now is: Can that be done in humans in a way that’s beneficial and not toxic?”  The lab is now looking to identify molecules that can either ramp up the activity of brown and beige fat or increase the production of both cell types as possible therapeutics for metabolic disorders or even cancer-associated cachexia. “Anyone who says that either approach will work better is being foolish. We just don’t know enough to go after just one or the other.”

On the irisin controversy. After reporting in 2012 that a muscle-related hormone called irisin could switch white fat to metabolically active brown fat, Spiegelman became embroiled in a media-covered debate about whether the molecule really exists; he was also the victim of a potential fraud plot. Most recently, Spiegelman provided thorough evidence that irisin does in fact exist. On the controversy, he says it’s a fine line between defending his scientific integrity and not adding more fuel to the fire or engaging with his harassers. “We have a long track record of doing credible and reproducible science and it was not that complicated to address the paper that claimed irisin was ‘a myth.’ That study used very outmoded scientific approaches.”

Raw talent. Many of Spiegelman’s trainees have gone on to become very successful scientists, including Tontonoz, Hotamisligil, Evan Rosen, and Randy Johnson. “It’s a quantum change in the experience of doing science when you get people who have their own visions. I would have thought that interacting with smart people would mainly help me get my scientific vision accomplished. And that was partly true, but also it changed my vision. When you have people challenging you on a day-to-day basis, you learn from them through the questions they ask and the way they challenge you in a constructive way. They made me a much better scientist.”

Rigorous mentorship.  “I feel very passionately that a major part of my job is to prepare the next generation of scientists. Everyone who comes through my lab will tell you that I take that very seriously. We make sure my students give a lot of talks and get critical assessments of their presentations to our lab group. I am very hands-on both scientifically and in developing the way students project their vision. I had a very good mentor, Marc Kirschner, and I’d like to think that I learned how to be a mentor from him. I want to make sure that when people walk out of my lab they are prepared to run independent research programs.”

Greatest Hits

  • Identified the master regulator of adipogenesis, the nuclear receptor PPARγ
  • Was the first to show that a nuclear oncogene, c-fos, codes for a transcription factor that binds to the promoters of genes
  • Demonstrated that adipose tissue synthesizes tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), providing the first direct link between obesity, inflammation, insulin resistance, and fat tissue.
  • Showed that brown fat cells are not developmentally related to white fat
  • Identified beige fat as a distinct cell type, different from either white or brown fat

 

Fanning the Flames

Obesity triggers a fatty acid synthesis pathway, which in turn helps drive T cell differentiation and inflammation.

By Kate Yandell | November 1, 2015

http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/44306/title/Fanning-the-Flames/

EDITOR’S CHOICE IN IMMUNOLOGY

The paper
Y. Endo et al., “Obesity drives Th17 cell differentiation by inducing the lipid metabolic kinase, ACC1,” Cell Reports, 12:1042-55, 2015.

Cell Rep. 2015 Aug 11;12(6):1042-55.   http://dx.doi.org:/10.1016/j.celrep.2015.07.014. Epub 2015 Jul 30.
Obesity Drives Th17 Cell Differentiation by Inducing the Lipid Metabolic Kinase, ACC1.
Endo Y1, Asou HK1, Matsugae N1, Hirahara K2, Shinoda K1, Tumes DJ3, Tokuyama H4, Yokote K4, Nakayama T5.   Author information
  • •A high-fat diet augments Th17 cell development and the expression of Acaca
  • •ACC1 controls Th17 cell development in vitro and Th17 cell pathogenicity in vivo
  • •ACC1 modulates RORγt function in developing Th17 cells
  • •Obesity in humans induces ACACA and IL-17A expression in CD4 T cells

Chronic inflammation due to obesity contributes to the development of metabolic diseases, autoimmune diseases, and cancer. Reciprocal interactions between metabolic systems and immune cells have pivotal roles in the pathogenesis of obesity-associated diseases, although the mechanisms regulating obesity-associated inflammatory diseases are still unclear. In the present study, we performed transcriptional profiling of memory phenotype CD4 T cells in high-fat-fed mice and identified acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1 (ACC1, the gene product of Acaca) as an essential regulator of Th17 cell differentiation in vitro and of the pathogenicity of Th17 cells in vivo. ACC1 modulates the DNA binding of RORγt to target genes in differentiating Th17 cells. In addition, we found a strong correlation between IL-17A-producing CD45RO(+)CD4 T cells and the expression of ACACA in obese subjects. Thus, ACC1 confers the appropriate function of RORγt through fatty acid synthesis and regulates the obesity-related pathology of Th17 cells.

Figure thumbnail fx1

http://www.cell.com/cms/attachment/2035221719/2050630604/fx1.jpg

 

 

http://www.the-scientist.com/November2015/NovMediLit_310px.jpg

FEEDING INFLAMMATION: When mice eat a diet high in fat, their CD4 T cells show increased expression of the fatty acid biosynthesis gene Acaca, which encodes the enzyme ACC1 (1). Products of the ACC1 fatty acid synthesis pathway encourage the transcription factor RORγt to bind near the gene encoding the cytokine IL-17A (2). There, RORγt recruits an enzyme called p300 to modify the genome epigenetically and turn on IL-17A. The memory T cells then differentiate into inflammatory T helper 17 cells.
See full infographic: PDF© STEVE GRAEPEL

Obesity often comes with a side of chronic inflammation, causing inflammatory chemicals and immune cells to flood adipose tissue, the hypothalamus, the liver, and other areas of the body. Inflammation is a big part of what makes obesity such an unhealthy condition, contributing to Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancers, autoimmune disorders, and possibly even neurodegenerative diseases.

To better understand the relationship between obesity and inflammation, Toshinori Nakayama, Yusuke Endo, and their colleagues at Chiba University in Japan started with what often leads to obesity: a high-fat diet. They fed mice rich meals for a couple of months and looked at how gene expression in the animals’ T cells compared to gene expression in the T cells of mice fed a normal diet. Most notably, they found increased expression ofAcaca, a gene that codes for a fatty acid synthesis enzyme called acetyl coA carboxylase 1 (ACC1). They went on to show that the resulting increase in fatty acid levels pushed CD4 T cells to differentiate into inflammatory T helper 17 (Th17) cells.

Th17 cells help fight off invading fungi and some bacteria. But these immune cells can also spin out of control in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Nakayama’s team showed that either blocking ACC1 activity with a drug called TOFA or deleting a key portion of Acaca in mouse CD4 T cells reduced the generation of pathologic Th17 cells. Overexpressing Acaca increased Th17-cell generation.

The researchers also demonstrated that mice fed a high-fat diet had elevated susceptibility to a multiple sclerosis–like disease, and that TOFA reduced the symptoms.

“This is a very intriguing finding, suggesting not only that obesity can directly induce Th17 differentiation but also indicating that pharmacologic targeting of fatty acid synthesis may help to interfere with obesity-associated inflammation,” Tim Sparwasser of the Twincore Center for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research in Hannover, Germany, says in an email. Sparwasser and his colleagues had previously shown that ACC1 is required for the differentiation of Th17 cells in mice and humans.

Nakayama explains that CD4 T cells must undergo profound metabolic changes as they mature and differentiate. “The intracellular metabolites, including fatty acids, are essential for cell proliferation and cell growth,” he says in an email. When fatty acid levels in T cells increase, the cells are activated and begin to proliferate.

“It’s a nice illustration of how, really, immune response is so highly connected to the metabolic state of the cell,” says Gökhan S. Hotamisligil of Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health who was not involved in the study. “The immune system launches its responses commensurate with the sources of nutrients and energy from the environment,” he adds in an email.

There are still missing pieces in the path from high-fat diet to increased Acaca expression to ACC1’s influence on T-cell differentiation. It also remains to be seen how this plays out in obese humans, although Nakayama and colleagues did show that inhibiting ACC1 reduced pathologic Th17 generation in human immune cell cultures, and that the T cells of obese humans contain elevated levels of ACC1 and show signs of increased differentiation into Th17 cells.

 

The prevalence of obesity has been increasing worldwide, and obesity is now a major public health problem in most developed countries (Gregor and Hotamisligil, 2011, Ng et al., 2014). Obesity-induced inflammation contributes to the development of various chronic diseases, such as autoimmune diseases, metabolic diseases, and cancer (Kanneganti and Dixit, 2012, Kim et al., 2014,Osborn and Olefsky, 2012, Winer et al., 2009a). A number of studies have pointed out the importance of reciprocal interactions between metabolic systems and immune cells in the pathogenesis of obesity-associated diseases (Kaminski and Randall, 2010, Kanneganti and Dixit, 2012, Kim et al., 2014, Mauer et al., 2014, Stienstra et al., 2012, Winer et al., 2011).

Elucidating the molecular mechanisms by which naive CD4 T cells differentiate into effector T cells is crucial for understanding helper T (Th) cell-mediated immune pathogenicity. After antigen stimulation, naive CD4 T cells differentiate into at least four distinct Th cell subsets: Th1, Th2, Th17, and inducible regulatory T (iTreg) cells (O’Shea and Paul, 2010, Reiner, 2007). Several specific master transcription factors that regulate Th1/Th2/Th17/iTreg cell differentiation have been identified, including T-bet for Th1 (Szabo et al., 2000), GATA3 (Yamashita et al., 2004, Zheng and Flavell, 1997) for Th2, retinoic-acid-receptor-related orphan receptor γt (RORγt) for Th17 (Ivanov et al., 2006), and forkhead box protein 3 (Foxp3) for iTreg (Sakaguchi et al., 2008). The appropriate expression and function of these transcription factors is essential for proper immune regulation by each Th cell subset.

Among these Th cell subsets, Th17 cells contribute to the host defense against fungi and extracellular bacteria (Milner et al., 2008). However, the pathogenicity of IL-17-producing T cells has been recognized in various autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel diseases, and steroid-resistant asthma (Bettelli et al., 2006, Coccia et al., 2012, Ivanov et al., 2006,Leonardi et al., 2012, McGeachy and Cua, 2008, Nylander and Hafler, 2012,Stockinger et al., 2007, Sundrud et al., 2009).

An HFD Promotes Th17 Cell Differentiation and Affects the Expression of Fatty Acid Enzymes in Memory CD4 T Cells In Vivo

Inhibition of ACC1 Function Results in Decreased Th17 Cell Differentiation and Ameliorates the Development of Autoimmune Disease

ACC1 Controls the Differentiation of Th17 Cells Both In Vitro and In Vivo

ACC1 Controls the Function, but Not Expression, of RORγt in Differentiating Th17 Cells

Extrinsic Fatty Acid Supplementation Restored Acaca−/− Th17 Cell Differentiation through the Functional Improvement of RORγt

Obese Subjects Show Upregulation of ACACA and Increased Th17 Cells in CD45RO+ Memory CD4 T Cells

We herein identified a critical role that ACC1 plays in Th17 cell differentiation and the pathogenicity of Th17 cells through the control of the RORγt function under obese circumstances. High-fat-induced obesity augments Th17 cell differentiation and the expression of enzymes involved in fatty acid metabolism, including ACC1. Pharmacological inhibition or genetic deletion of ACC1 resulted in impaired Th17 cell differentiation in both mice and humans. In contrast, overexpression of Acaca induced Th17 cells in vivo, leaving the expression ofIfng and Il4 largely unchanged. ACC1 modulated the binding of RORγt to theIl17a gene and the subsequent p300 recruitment in differentiating Th17 cells. Memory CD4 T cells from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of obese subjects showed increased IL-17A production and ACACA expression. Furthermore, a strong correlation was detected between the proportion of IL-17A-producing cells and the expression level of ACACA in memory CD4 T cells in obese subjects. Thus, our findings provide evidence of a mechanism wherein obesity can exacerbate IL-17-mediated pathology via the induction of ACC1.

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Irreconciliable Dissonance in Physical Space and Cellular Metabolic Conception

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Irreconciliable Dissonance in Physical Space and Cellular Metabolic Conception

Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

Pasteur Effect – Warburg Effect – What its history can teach us today. 

José Eduardo de Salles Roselino

The Warburg effect, in reality the “Pasteur-effect” was the first example of metabolic regulation described. A decrease in the carbon flux originated at the sugar molecule towards the end of the catabolic pathway, with ethanol and carbon dioxide observed when yeast cells were transferred from an anaerobic environmental condition to an aerobic one. In Pasteur´s studies, sugar metabolism was measured mainly by the decrease of sugar concentration in the yeast growth media observed after a measured period of time. The decrease of the sugar concentration in the media occurs at great speed in yeast grown in anaerobiosis (oxygen deficient) and its speed was greatly reduced by the transfer of the yeast culture to an aerobic condition. This finding was very important for the wine industry of France in Pasteur’s time, since most of the undesirable outcomes in the industrial use of yeast were perceived when yeasts cells took a very long time to create, a rather selective anaerobic condition. This selective culture media was characterized by the higher carbon dioxide levels produced by fast growing yeast cells and by a higher alcohol content in the yeast culture media.

However, in biochemical terms, this finding was required to understand Lavoisier’s results indicating that chemical and biological oxidation of sugars produced the same calorimetric (heat generation) results. This observation requires a control mechanism (metabolic regulation) to avoid burning living cells by fast heat released by the sugar biological oxidative processes (metabolism). In addition, Lavoisier´s results were the first indications that both processes happened inside similar thermodynamics limits. In much resumed form, these observations indicate the major reasons that led Warburg to test failure in control mechanisms in cancer cells in comparison with the ones observed in normal cells.

[It might be added that the availability of O2 and CO2 and climatic conditions over 750 million years that included volcanic activity, tectonic movements of the earth crust, and glaciation, and more recently the use of carbon fuels and the extensive deforestation of our land masses have had a large role in determining the biological speciation over time, in sea and on land. O2 is generated by plants utilizing energy from the sun and conversion of CO2. Remove the plants and we tip the balance. A large source of CO2 is from beneath the earth’s surface.]

Biology inside classical thermodynamics places some challenges to scientists. For instance, all classical thermodynamics must be measured in reversible thermodynamic conditions. In an isolated system, increase in P (pressure) leads to increase in V (volume), all this occurring in a condition in which infinitesimal changes in one affects in the same way the other, a continuum response. Not even a quantic amount of energy will stand beyond those parameters.

In a reversible system, a decrease in V, under same condition, will led to an increase in P. In biochemistry, reversible usually indicates a reaction that easily goes either from A to B or B to A. For instance, when it was required to search for an anti-ischemic effect of Chlorpromazine in an extra hepatic obstructed liver, it was necessary to use an adequate system of increased biliary system pressure in a reversible manner to exclude a direct effect of this drug over the biological system pressure inducer (bile secretion) in Braz. J. Med. Biol. Res 1989; 22: 889-893. Frequently, these details are jumped over by those who read biology in ATGC letters.

Very important observations can be made in this regard, when neutral mutations are taken into consideration since, after several mutations (not affecting previous activity and function), a last mutant may provide a new transcript RNA for a protein and elicit a new function. For an example, consider a Prion C from lamb getting similar to bovine Prion C while preserving  its normal role in the lamb when its ability to change Human Prion C is considered (Stanley Prusiner).

This observation is good enough, to confirm one of the most important contributions of Erwin Schrodinger in his What is Life:

“This little book arose from a course of public lectures, delivered by a theoretical physicist to an audience of about four hundred which did not substantially dwindle, though warned at the outset that the subject matter was a difficult one and that the lectures could not be termed popular, even though the physicist’s most dreaded weapon, mathematical deduction, would hardly be utilized. The reason for this was not that the subject was simple enough to be explained without mathematics, but rather that it was much too involved to be fully accessible to mathematics.”

After Hans Krebs, description of the cyclic nature of the citrate metabolism and after its followers described its requirement for aerobic catabolism two major lines of research started the search for the understanding of the mechanism of energy transfer that explains how ADP is converted into ATP. One followed the organic chemistry line of reasoning and therefore, searched for a mechanism that could explain how the breakdown of carbon-carbon link could have its energy transferred to ATP synthesis. One of the major leaders of this research line was Britton Chance. He took into account that relatively earlier in the series of Krebs cycle reactions, two carbon atoms of acetyl were released as carbon dioxide ( In fact, not the real acetyl carbons but those on the opposite side of citrate molecule). In stoichiometric terms, it was not important whether the released carbons were or were not exactly those originated from glucose carbons. His research aimed at to find out an intermediate proteinaceous intermediary that could act as an energy reservoir. The intermediary could store in a phosphorylated amino acid the energy of carbon-carbon bond breakdown. This activated amino acid could transfer its phosphate group to ADP producing ATP. A key intermediate involved in the transfer was identified by Kaplan and Lipmann at John Hopkins as acetyl coenzyme A, for which Fritz Lipmann received a Nobel Prize.

Alternatively, under possible influence of the excellent results of Hodgkin and Huxley a second line of research appears. The work of Hodgkin & Huxley indicated that the storage of electrical potential energy in transmembrane ionic asymmetries and presented the explanation for the change from resting to action potential in excitable cells. This second line of research, under the leadership of Peter Mitchell postulated a mechanism for the transfer of oxide/reductive power of organic molecules oxidation through electron transfer as the key for the energetic transfer mechanism required for ATP synthesis.
This diverted the attention from high energy (~P) phosphate bond to the transfer of electrons. During most of the time the harsh period of the two confronting points of view, Paul Boyer and followers attempted to act as a conciliatory third party, without getting good results, according to personal accounts (in L. A. or Latin America) heard from those few of our scientists who were able to follow the major scientific events held in USA, and who could present to us later. Paul  Boyer could present how the energy was transduced by a molecular machine that changes in conformation in a series of 3 steps while rotating in one direction in order to produce ATP and in opposite direction in order to produce ADP plus Pi from ATP (reversibility).

However, earlier, a victorious Peter Mitchell obtained the result in the conceptual dispute, over the Britton Chance point of view, after he used E. Coli mutants to show H+ gradients in the cell membrane and its use as energy source, for which he received a Nobel Prize. Somehow, this outcome represents such a blow to Chance’s previous work that somehow it seems to have cast a shadow over very important findings obtained during his earlier career that should not be affected by one or another form of energy transfer mechanism.  For instance, Britton Chance got the simple and rapid polarographic assay method of oxidative phosphorylation and the idea of control of energy metabolism that brings us back to Pasteur.

This metabolic alternative result seems to have been neglected in the recent years of obesity epidemics, which led to a search for a single molecular mechanism required for the understanding of the accumulation of chemical (adipose tissue) reserve in our body. It does not mean that here the role of central nervous system is neglected. In short, in respiring mitochondria the rate of electron transport linked to the rate of ATP production is determined primarily by the relative concentrations of ADP, ATP and phosphate in the external media (cytosol) and not by the concentration of respiratory substrate as pyruvate. Therefore, when the yield of ATP is high as it is in aerobiosis and the cellular use of ATP is not changed, the oxidation of pyruvate and therefore of glycolysis is quickly (without change in gene expression), throttled down to the resting state. The dependence of respiratory rate on ADP concentration is also seen in intact cells. A muscle at rest and using no ATP has a very low respiratory rate.   [When skeletal muscle is stressed by high exertion, lactic acid produced is released into the circulation and is metabolized aerobically by the heart at the end of the activity].

This respiratory control of metabolism will lead to preservation of body carbon reserves and in case of high caloric intake in a diet, also shows increase in fat reserves essential for our biological ancestors survival (Today for our obesity epidemics). No matter how important this observation is, it is only one focal point of metabolic control. We cannot reduce the problem of obesity to the existence of metabolic control. There are numerous other factors but on the other hand, we cannot neglect or remove this vital process in order to correct obesity. However, we cannot explain obesity ignoring this metabolic control. This topic is so neglected in modern times that we cannot follow major research lines of the past that were interrupted by the emerging molecular biology techniques and the vain belief that a dogmatic vision of biology could replace all previous knowledge by a new one based upon ATGC readings. For instance, in order to display bad consequences derived from the ignorance of these old scientific facts, we can take into account, for instance, how ion movements across membranes affects membrane protein conformation and therefore contradicts the wrong central dogma of molecular biology. This change in protein conformation (with unchanged amino acid sequence) and/or the lack of change in protein conformation is linked to the factors that affect vital processes as the heart beats. This modern ignorance could also explain some major pitfalls seen in new drugs clinical trials and in a small scale on bad medical practices.

The work of Britton Chance and of Peter Mitchell have deep and sound scientific roots that were made with excellent scientific techniques, supported by excellent scientific reasoning and that were produced in a large series of very important intermediary scientific results. Their sole difference was to aim at very different scientific explanations as their goals (They have different Teleology in their minds made by their previous experiences). When, with the use of mutants obtained in microorganisms P Mitchell´s goal was found to survive and B Chance to succumb to the experimental evidence, all those excellent findings of B Chance and followers were directed to the dustbin of scientific history as an example of lack of scientific consideration.  [On the one hand, the Mitchell model used a unicellular organism; on the other, Chance’s work was with eukaryotic cells, quite relevant to the discussion.]

We can resume the challenge faced by these two great scientists in the following form: The first conceptual unification in bioenergetics, achieved in the 1940s, is inextricably bound up with the name of Fritz Lipmann. Its central feature was the recognition that adenosine triphosphate, ATP, serves as a universal energy  “currency” much as money serves as economic currency. In a nutshell, the purpose of metabolism is to support the synthesis of ATP. In microorganisms, this is perfect! In humans or mammals, or vertebrates, by the same reason that we cannot consider that gene expression is equivalent to protein function (an acceptable error in the case of microorganisms) this oversimplifies the metabolic requirement with a huge error. However, in case our concern is ATP chemistry only, the metabolism produces ATP and the hydrolysis of ATP pays for the performance of almost, all kinds of works. It is possible to presume that to find out how the flow of metabolism (carbon flow) led to ATP production must be considered a major focal point of research of the two contenders. Consequently, what could be a minor fall of one of the contenders, in case we take into account all that was found during their entire life of research, the real failure in B Chance’s final goal was amplified far beyond what may be considered by reason!

Another aspect that must be taken into account: Both contenders have in the scientific past a very sound root. Metabolism may produce two forms of energy currency (I personally don´t like this expression*) and I use it here because it was used by both groups in order to express their findings. Together with simplistic thermodynamics, this expression conveys wrong ideas): The second kind of energy currency is the current of ions passing from one side of a membrane to the other. The P. Mitchell scientific root undoubtedly have the work of Hodgkin & Huxley, Huxley &  Huxley, Huxley & Simmons

*ATP is produced under the guidance of cell needs and not by its yield. When glucose yields only 2 ATPs per molecule it is oxidized at very high speed (anaerobiosis) as is required to match cellular needs. On the other hand, when it may yield (thermodynamic terms) 38 ATP the same molecule is oxidized at low speed. It would be similar to an investor choice its least money yield form for its investment (1940s to 1972) as a solid support. B. Chance had the enzymologists involved in clarifying how ATP could be produced directly from NADH + H+ oxidative reductive metabolic reactions or from the hydrolysis of an enolpyruvate intermediary. Both competitors had their work supported by different but, sound scientific roots and have produced very important scientific results while trying to present their hypothetical point of view.

Before the winning results of P. Mitchell were displayed, one line of defense used by B. Chance followers was to create a conflict between what would be expected by a restrictive role of proteins through its specificity ionic interactions and the general ability of ionic asymmetries that could be associated with mitochondrial ATP production. Chemical catalyzed protein activities do not have perfect specificity but an outstanding degree of selective interaction was presented by the lock and key model of enzyme interaction. A large group of outstanding “mitochondriologists” were able to show ATP synthesis associated with Na+, K+, Ca2+… asymmetries on mitochondrial membranes and any time they did this, P. Mitchell have to display the existence of antiporters that exchange X for hydrogen as the final common source of chemiosmotic energy used by mitochondria for ATP synthesis.

This conceptual battle has generated an enormous knowledge that was laid to rest, somehow discontinued in the form of scientific research, when the final E. Coli mutant studies presented the convincing final evidence in favor of P. Mitchell point of view.

Not surprisingly, a “wise anonymous” later, pointed out: “No matter what you are doing, you will always be better off in case you have a mutant”

(Principles of Medical Genetics T D Gelehrter & F.S. Collins chapter 7, 1990).

However, let’s take the example of a mechanical wristwatch. It clearly indicates when the watch is working in an acceptable way, that its normal functioning condition is not the result of one of its isolated components – or something that can be shown by a reductionist molecular view.  Usually it will be considered that it is working in an acceptable way, in case it is found that its accuracy falls inside a normal functional range, for instance, one or two standard deviations bellow or above the mean value for normal function, what depends upon the rigor wisely adopted. While, only when it has a faulty component (a genetic inborn error) we can indicate a single isolated piece as the cause of its failure (a reductionist molecular view).

We need to teach in medicine, first the major reasons why the watch works fine (not saying it is “automatic”). The functions may cross the reversible to irreversible regulatory limit change, faster than what we can imagine. Latter, when these ideas about normal are held very clear in the mind set of medical doctors (not medical technicians) we may address the inborn errors and what we may have learn from it. A modern medical technician may cause admiration when he uses an “innocent” virus to correct for a faulty gene (a rather impressive technological advance). However, in case the virus, later shows signals that indicate that it was not so innocent, a real medical doctor will be called upon to put things in correct place again.

Among the missing parts of normal evolution in biochemistry a lot about ion fluxes can be found. Even those oscillatory changes in Ca2+ that were shown to affect gene expression (C. De Duve) were laid to rest since, they clearly indicate a source of biological information that despite the fact that it does not change nucleotides order in the DNA, it shows an opposing flux of biological information against the dogma (DNA to RNA to proteins). Another, line has shown a hierarchy, on the use of mitochondrial membrane potential: First the potential is used for Ca2+ uptake and only afterwards, the potential is used for ADP conversion into ATP (A. L. Lehninger). In fact, the real idea of A. L. Lehninger was by far, more complex since according to him, mitochondria works like a buffer for intracellular calcium releasing it to outside in case of a deep decrease in cytosol levels or capturing it from cytosol when facing transient increase in Ca2+ load. As some of Krebs cycle dehydrogenases were activated by Ca2+, this finding was used to propose a new control factor in addition to the one of ADP (B. Chance). All this was discontinued with the wrong use of calculus (today we could indicate bioinformatics in a similar role) in biochemistry that has established less importance to a mitochondrial role after comparative kinetics that today are seen as faulty.

It is important to combat dogmatic reasoning and restore sound scientific foundations in basic medical courses that must urgently reverse the faulty trend that tries to impose a view that goes from the detail towards generalization instead of the correct form that goes from the general finding well understood towards its molecular details. The view that led to curious subjects as bioinformatics in medical courses as training in sequence finding activities can only be explained by its commercial value. The usual form of scientific thinking respects the limits of our ability to grasp new knowledge and relies on reproducibility of scientific results as a form to surpass lack of mathematical equation that defines relationship of variables and the determination of its functional domains. It also uses old scientific roots, as its sound support never replaces existing knowledge by dogmatic and/or wishful thinking. When the sequence of DNA was found as a technical advance to find amino acid sequence in proteins it was just a technical advance. This technical advance by no means could be considered a scientific result presented as an indication that DNA sequences alone have replaced the need to study protein chemistry, its responses to microenvironmental changes in order to understand its multiple conformations, changes in activities and function. As E. Schrodinger correctly describes the chemical structure responsible for the coded form stored of genetic information must have minimal interaction with its microenvironment in order to endure hundreds and hundreds years as seen in Hapsburg’s lips. Only magical reasoning assumes that it is possible to find out in non-reactive chemical structures the properties of the reactive ones.

For instance, knowledge of the reactions of the Krebs cycle clearly indicate a role for solvent that no longer could be considered to be an inert bath for catalytic activity of the enzymes when the transfer of energy include a role for hydrogen transport. The great increase in understanding this change on chemical reaction arrived from conformational energy.

Again, even a rather simplistic view of this atomic property (Conformational energy) is enough to confirm once more, one of the most important contribution of E. Schrodinger in his What is Life:

“This little book arose from a course of public lectures, delivered by a theoretical physicist to an audience of about four hundred which did not substantially dwindle, though warned at the outset that the subject matter was a difficult one and that the lectures could not be termed popular, even though the physicist’s most dreaded weapon, mathematical deduction, would hardly be utilized. The reason for this was not that the subject was simple enough to be explained without mathematics, but rather that it was much too involved to be fully accessible to mathematics.”

In a very simplistic view, while energy manifests itself by the ability to perform work conformational energy as a property derived from our atomic structure can be neutral, positive or negative (no effect, increased or decreased reactivity upon any chemistry reactivity measured as work)

Also:

“I mean the fact that we, whose total being is entirely based on a marvelous interplay of this very kind, yet if all possess the power of acquiring considerable knowledge about it. I think it possible that this knowledge may advance to little just a short of a complete understanding -of the first marvel. The second may well be beyond human understanding.”

In fact, scientific knowledge allows us to understand how biological evolution may have occurred or have not occurred and yet does not present a proof about how it would have being occurred. It will be always be an indication of possible against highly unlike and never a scientific proven fact about the real form of its occurrence.

As was the case of B. Chance in its bioenergetics findings, we may get very important findings that indicates wrong directions in the future as was his case, or directed toward our past.

The Skeleton of Physical Time – Quantum Energies in Relative Space of S-labs

By Radoslav S. Bozov  Independent Researcher

WSEAS, Biology and BioSystems of Biomedicine

Space does not equate to distance, displacement of an object by classically defined forces – electromagnetic, gravity or inertia. In perceiving quantum open systems, a quanta, a package of energy, displaces properties of wave interference and statistical outcomes of sums of paths of particles detected by a design of S-labs.

The notion of S-labs, space labs, deals with inherent problems of operational module, R(i+1), where an imagination number ‘struggles’ to work under roots of a negative sign, a reflection of an observable set of sums reaching out of the limits of the human being organ, an eye or other foundational signal processing system.

While heavenly bodies, planets, star systems, and other exotic forms of light reflecting and/or emitting objects, observable via naked eye have been deduced to operate under numerical systems that calculate a periodic displacement of one relative to another, atomic clocks of nanospace open our eyes to ever expanding energy spaces, where matrices of interactive variables point to the problem of infinity of variations in scalar spaces, however, defining properties of minute universes as a mirror image of an astronomical system. The first and furthermost problem is essentially the same as those mathematical methodologies deduced by Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein for processing a surface. I will introduce you to a surface interference method by describing undetermined objective space in terms of determined subjective time.

Therefore, the moment will be an outcome of statistical sums of a numerical system extending from near zero to near one. Three strings hold down a dual system entangled via interference of two waves, where a single wave is a product of three particles (today named accordingly to either weak or strong interactions) momentum.

The above described system emerges from duality into trinity the objective space value of physical realities. The triangle of physical observables – charge, gravity and electromagnetism, is an outcome of interference of particles, strings and waves, where particles are not particles, or are strings strings, or  are waves waves of an infinite character in an open system which we attempt to define to predict outcomes of tomorrow’s parameters, either dependent or independent as well as both subjective to time simulations.

We now know that aging of a biological organism cannot be defined within singularity. Thereafter, clocks are subjective to apparatuses measuring oscillation of defined parameters which enable us to calculate both amplitude and a period, which we know to be dependent on phase transitions.

The problem of phase was solved by the applicability of carbon relative systems. A piece of diamond does not get wet, yet it holds water’s light entangled property. Water is the dark force of light. To formulate such statement, we have been searching truth by examining cooling objects where the Maxwell demon is translated into information, a data complex system.

Modern perspectives in computing quantum based matrices, 0+1 =1 and/or 0+0=1, and/or 1+1 =0, will be reduced by applying a conceptual frame of Aladdin’s flying anti-gravity carpet, unwrapping both past and future by sending a photon to both, placing present always near zero. Thus, each parallel quantum computation of a natural system approaching the limit of a vibration of a string defining 0 does not equal 0, and 1 does not equal 1. In any case, if our method 1+1 = 1, yet, 1 is not 1 at time i+1. This will set the fundamentals of an operational module, called labris operator or in simplicity S-labs. Note, that 1 as a result is an event predictable to future, while interacting parameters of addition 1+1 may be both, 1 as an observable past, and 1 as an imaginary system, or 1+1 displaced interactive parameters of past observable events. This is the foundation of Future Quantum Relative Systems Interference (QRSI), taking analytical technologies of future as a result of data matrices compressing principle relative to carbon as a reference matter rational to water based properties.

Goedel’s concept of loops exist therefore only upon discrete relative space uniting to parallel absolute continuity of time ‘lags’. ( Goedel, Escher and Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. A Metaphorical Fugue on Minds and Machines in the Spirit of Lewis Carroll. D Hofstadter.  Chapter XX: Strange Loops, Or Tangled Hierarchies. A grand windup of many of the ideas about hierarchical systems and self-reference. It is concerned with the snarls which arise when systems turn back on themselves-for example, science probing science, government investigating governmental wrongdoing, art violating the rules of art, and finally, humans thinking about their own brains and minds. Does Gödel’s Theorem have anything to say about this last “snarl”? Are free will and the sensation of consciousness connected to Gödel’s Theorem? The Chapter ends by tying Gödel, Escher, and Bach together once again.)  The fight struggle in-between time creates dark spaces within which strings manage to obey light properties – entangled bozons of information carrying future outcomes of a systems processing consciousness. Therefore, Albert Einstein was correct in his quantum time realities by rejecting a resolving cube of sugar within a cup of tea (Henri Bergson 19th century philosopher. Bergson’s concept of multiplicity attempts to unify in a consistent way two contradictory features: heterogeneity and continuity. Many philosophers today think that this concept of multiplicity, despite its difficulty, is revolutionary.) However, the unity of time and space could not be achieved by deducing time to charge, gravity and electromagnetic properties of energy and mass.

Charge is further deduced to interference of particles/strings/waves, contrary to the Hawking idea of irreducibility of chemical energy carrying ‘units’, and gravity is accounted for by intrinsic properties of   anti-gravity carbon systems processing light, an electromagnetic force, that I have deduced towards ever expanding discrete energy space-energies rational to compressing mass/time. The role of loops seems to operate to control formalities where boundaries of space fluctuate as a result of what we called above – dark time-spaces.

Indeed, the concept of horizon is a constant due to ever expanding observables. Thus, it fails to acquire a rational approach towards space-time issues.

Richard Feynman has touched on issues of touching of space, sums of paths of particle traveling through time. In a way he has resolved an important paradigm, storing information and possibly studying it by opening a black box. Schroedinger’s cat is alive again, but incapable of climbing a tree when chased by a dog. Every time a cat climbs a garden tree, a fruit falls on hedgehogs carried away parallel to living wormholes whose purpose of generating information lies upon carbon units resolving light.

In order to deal with such a paradigm, we will introduce i+1 under square root in relativity, therefore taking negative one ( -1 = sqrt (i+1), an operational module R dealing with Wheelers foam squeezed by light, releasing water – dark spaces. Thousand words down!

What is a number? Is that a name or some kind of language or both? Is the issue of number theory possibly accountable to the value of the concept of entropic timing? Light penetrating a pyramid holding bean seeds on a piece of paper and a piece of slice of bread, a triple set, where a church mouse has taken a drop of tear, but a blood drop. What an amazing physics! The magic of biology lies above egoism, above pride, and below Saints.

We will set up the twelve parameters seen through 3+1 in classic realities:

–              discrete absolute energies/forces – no contradiction for now between Newtonian and Albert Einstein mechanics

–              mass absolute continuity – conservational law of physics in accordance to weak and strong forces

–              quantum relative spaces – issuing a paradox of Albert Einstein’s space-time resolved by the uncertainty principle

–              parallel continuity of multiple time/universes – resolving uncertainty of united space and energy through evolving statistical concepts of scalar relative space expansion and vector quantum energies by compressing relative continuity of matter in it, ever compressing flat surfaces – finding the inverse link between deterministic mechanics of displacement and imaginary space, where spheres fit within surface of triangles as time unwraps past by pulling strings from future.

To us, common human beings, with an extra curiosity overloaded by real dreams, value happens to play in the intricate foundation of life – the garden of love, its carbon management in mind, collecting pieces of squeezed cooling time.

The infinite interference of each operational module to another composing ever emerging time constrains unified by the Solar system, objective to humanity, perhaps answers that a drop of blood and a drop of tear is united by a droplet of a substance separating negative entropy to time courses of a physical realities as defined by an open algorithm where chasing power subdue to space becomes an issue of time.

Jose Eduardo de Salles Roselino

Some small errors: For intance an increase i P leads to a decrease in V ( not an increase in V)..

 

Radoslav S. Bozov  Independent Researcher

If we were to use a preventative measures of medical science, instruments of medical science must predict future outcomes based on observable parameters of history….. There are several key issues arising: 1. Despite pinning a difference on genomic scale , say pieces of information, we do not know how to have changed that – that is shift methylome occupying genome surfaces , in a precise manner.. 2. Living systems operational quo DO NOT work as by vector gravity physics of ‘building blocks. That is projecting a delusional concept of a masonry trick, who has not worked by corner stones and ever shifting momenta … Assuming genomic assembling worked, that is dealing with inferences through data mining and annotation, we are not in a position to read future in real time, and we will never be, because of the rtPCR technology self restriction into data -time processing .. We know of existing post translational modalities… 3. We don’t know what we don’t know, and that foundational to future medicine – that is dealing with biological clocks, behavior, and various daily life inputs ranging from radiation to water systems, food quality, drugs…

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