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Some human metabolic disorders a symptom of parasites & gut environment?
Dragonfly's Metabolic Disease Provides Clues About Human Obesity
Parasite-infected dragonflies suffer the same metabolic disorders that have led to an epidemic of obesity and type-2 diabetes in humans, reveal the findings of research conducted at Penn State University that are due to be published in the 5 December 2006 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and also in the PNAS early online edition on 21 November. The discovery expands the known taxonomic breadth of metabolic disease and suggests that the study of microbes found in human intestines may provide a greater understanding of the root causes of human metabolic dysfunction.
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Parasitic infection triggers an inflammatory response and immediate changes in metabolism. Unable to metabolize fat, the dragonflies accumulate fat around their muscles. This finding begs the question of whether something similar might be happening in human metabolic diseases, the root causes of which remain poorly understood despite intense study.
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One change in the human environment is the dramatic increase in soft-drink consumption among Americans, estimated to be 500 percent over 50 years from the 1940s to the 1990s. "We looked in the literature and found that consumption of high-fructose corn syrup often is associated with gastrointestinal distress, which may be a sign that fructose affects the gut microbial flora," said Marden.
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Another clue is that some AIDS patients, with compromised immune systems, have chronic problems with Cryptosporidium (a protozoan parasite closely related to the one found in dragonflies) that over time impairs their metabolism in a similar fashion to what Schilder and Marden found for infected dragonflies.
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One symptom involves the signaling molecule, p38 MAP kinase, a common indicator of stress response in humans and other animals. The signaling molecule was chronically activated in the flight muscles of parasite-infected dragonflies, but not in muscles from healthy dragonflies. Activation of p38 MAP kinase has been shown to be related to the development of insulin resistance and metabolic disease in humans.
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The researchers also found that the muscles of parasite-infected dragonflies oxidized only carbohydrates instead of a carbohydrate-lipid mix. A common symptom of metabolic syndrome is that muscles metabolize fewer lipids. The researchers also found that unused lipids accumulated in the dragonflies' thorax. Humans with metabolic disease tend to accumulate fat around skeletal muscle tissue.
>
Parasite-infected dragonflies suffer the same metabolic disorders that have led to an epidemic of obesity and type-2 diabetes in humans, reveal the findings of research conducted at Penn State University that are due to be published in the 5 December 2006 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and also in the PNAS early online edition on 21 November. The discovery expands the known taxonomic breadth of metabolic disease and suggests that the study of microbes found in human intestines may provide a greater understanding of the root causes of human metabolic dysfunction.
>
Parasitic infection triggers an inflammatory response and immediate changes in metabolism. Unable to metabolize fat, the dragonflies accumulate fat around their muscles. This finding begs the question of whether something similar might be happening in human metabolic diseases, the root causes of which remain poorly understood despite intense study.
>
One change in the human environment is the dramatic increase in soft-drink consumption among Americans, estimated to be 500 percent over 50 years from the 1940s to the 1990s. "We looked in the literature and found that consumption of high-fructose corn syrup often is associated with gastrointestinal distress, which may be a sign that fructose affects the gut microbial flora," said Marden.
>
Another clue is that some AIDS patients, with compromised immune systems, have chronic problems with Cryptosporidium (a protozoan parasite closely related to the one found in dragonflies) that over time impairs their metabolism in a similar fashion to what Schilder and Marden found for infected dragonflies.
>
One symptom involves the signaling molecule, p38 MAP kinase, a common indicator of stress response in humans and other animals. The signaling molecule was chronically activated in the flight muscles of parasite-infected dragonflies, but not in muscles from healthy dragonflies. Activation of p38 MAP kinase has been shown to be related to the development of insulin resistance and metabolic disease in humans.
>
The researchers also found that the muscles of parasite-infected dragonflies oxidized only carbohydrates instead of a carbohydrate-lipid mix. A common symptom of metabolic syndrome is that muscles metabolize fewer lipids. The researchers also found that unused lipids accumulated in the dragonflies' thorax. Humans with metabolic disease tend to accumulate fat around skeletal muscle tissue.
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