Discovery of a class of endogenous mammalian lipids with anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory effects.

Increased adipose tissue lipogenesis is associated with enhanced insulin sensitivity. Mice overexpressing the Glut4 glucose transporter in adipocytes have elevated lipogenesis and increased glucose tolerance despite being obese with elevated circulating fatty acids. Lipidomic analysis of adipose tissue revealed the existence of branched fatty acid esters of hydroxy fatty acids (FAHFAs) that were elevated 16- to 18-fold in these mice. FAHFA isomers differ by the branched ester position on the hydroxy fatty acid (e.g., palmitic-acid-9-hydroxy-stearic-acid, 9-PAHSA). PAHSAs are synthesized in vivo and regulated by fasting and high-fat feeding. PAHSA levels correlate highly with insulin sensitivity and are reduced in adipose tissue and serum of insulin-resistant humans. PAHSA administration in mice lowers ambient glycemia and improves glucose tolerance while stimulating GLP-1 and insulin secretion. PAHSAs also reduce adipose tissue inflammation. In adipocytes, PAHSAs signal through GPR120 to enhance insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. Thus, FAHFAs are endogenous lipids with the potential to treat type 2 diabetes.

Tumour extracellular vesicles and particles induce liver metabolic dysfunction.

Cancer alters the function of multiple organs beyond those targeted by metastasis1,2. Here we show that inflammation, fatty liver and dysregulated metabolism are hallmarks of systemically affected livers in mouse models and in patients with extrahepatic metastasis. We identified tumour-derived extracellular vesicles and particles (EVPs) as crucial mediators of cancer-induced hepatic reprogramming, which could be reversed by reducing tumour EVP secretion via depletion of Rab27a. All EVP subpopulations, exosomes and principally exomeres, could dysregulate hepatic function. The fatty acid cargo of tumour EVPs-particularly palmitic acid-induced secretion of tumour necrosis factor (TNF) by Kupffer cells, generating a pro-inflammatory microenvironment, suppressing fatty acid metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation, and promoting fatty liver formation. Notably, Kupffer cell ablation or TNF blockade markedly decreased tumour-induced fatty liver generation. Tumour implantation or pre-treatment with tumour EVPs diminished cytochrome P450 gene expression and attenuated drug metabolism in a TNF-dependent manner. We also observed fatty liver and decreased cytochrome P450 expression at diagnosis in tumour-free livers of patients with pancreatic cancer who later developed extrahepatic metastasis, highlighting the clinical relevance of our findings. Notably, tumour EVP education enhanced side effects of chemotherapy, including bone marrow suppression and cardiotoxicity, suggesting that metabolic reprogramming of the liver by tumour-derived EVPs may limit chemotherapy tolerance in patients with cancer. Our results reveal how tumour-derived EVPs dysregulate hepatic function and their targetable potential, alongside TNF inhibition, for preventing fatty liver formation and enhancing the efficacy of chemotherapy.

Effect of Statin Use on Cancer-related Mortality in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Prospective United States Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Indications for use of statins are common among patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Epidemiologic studies have suggested a possible association between statins and decreased risk of malignancies. We hypothesized that statin use has a protective effect on cancer mortality in patients with NAFLD. METHODS: Participants with NAFLD in 8 rounds of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were included in this study. Mortality data were obtained by linking the NHANES data to National Death Index. NAFLD was defined using the previously validated Hepatic Steatosis Index model. RESULTS: A total of 10,821 participants with NAFLD were included and 23% were statin users (n=2523). Statin use was associated with a 43% lower risk of cancer mortality [hazard ratio (HR)=0.57, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.43-0.75, P<0.001] in multivariable analysis. Statin use under 1 year did not show a significant effect on cancer mortality (HR=0.72, 95% CI: 0.46-1.12), while statin use for 1 to 5 years decreased cancer mortality by 35% (HR=0.65, 95% CI: 0.42-0.99, P=0.46), and statin use >5 years decreased cancer mortality by 56% (HR=0.44, 95% CI: 0.29-0.66, P<0.001). Statin use was associated with a significant decrease in the risk of cancer mortality in NAFLD patients with both low and high risk of liver fibrosis (HR=0.55, 95% CI: 0.38-0.81; and HR=0.53, 95% CI: 0.31-0.89, respectively). CONCLUSION: Using a large US prospective cohort, we showed statin use is associated with a considerable decrease in cancer-related mortality among patients with NAFLD. These results are important for clinical decision making, as statin indications are prevalent among NAFLD patients, but many do not receive benefit in the event that the statin is discontinued due to liver test abnormalities.

Branched Fatty Acid Esters of Hydroxy Fatty Acids Are Preferred Substrates of the MODY8 Protein Carboxyl Ester Lipase.

A recently discovered class of endogenous mammalian lipids, branched fatty acid esters of hydroxy fatty acids (FAHFAs), possesses anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory activities. Here, we identified and validated carboxyl ester lipase (CEL), a pancreatic enzyme hydrolyzing cholesteryl esters and other dietary lipids, as a FAHFA hydrolase. Variants of CEL have been linked to maturity-onset diabetes of the young, type 8 (MODY8), and to chronic pancreatitis. We tested the FAHFA hydrolysis activity of the CEL MODY8 variant and found a modest increase in activity as compared with that of the normal enzyme. Together, the data suggest that CEL might break down dietary FAHFAs.

A potent α/ß-peptide analogue of GLP-1 with prolonged action in vivo.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a natural agonist for GLP-1R, a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) on the surface of pancreatic ß cells. GLP-1R agoinsts are attractive for treatment of type 2 diabetes, but GLP-1 itself is rapidly degraded by peptidases in vivo. We describe a design strategy for retaining GLP-1-like activity while engendering prolonged activity in vivo, based on strategic replacement of native α residues with conformationally constrained ß-amino acid residues. This backbone-modification approach may be useful for developing stabilized analogues of other peptide hormones.

Adipose Signals Regulating Distal Organ Health and Disease.

Excessive adiposity in obesity is a significant risk factor for development of type 2 diabetes (T2D), nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and other cardiometabolic diseases. An unhealthy expansion of adipose tissue (AT) results in reduced adipogenesis, increased adipocyte hypertrophy, adipocyte hypoxia, chronic low-grade inflammation, increased macrophage infiltration, and insulin resistance. This ultimately culminates in AT dysfunction characterized by decreased secretion of antidiabetic adipokines such as adiponectin and adipsin and increased secretion of proinflammatory prodiabetic adipokines including RBP4 and resistin. This imbalance in adipokine secretion alters the physiological state of AT communication with target organs including pancreatic ß-cells, heart, and liver. In the pancreatic ß-cells, adipokines are known to have a direct effect on insulin secretion, gene expression, cell death, and/or dedifferentiation. For instance, impaired secretion of adipsin, which promotes insulin secretion and ß-cell identity, results in ß-cell failure and T2D, thus presenting a potential druggable target to improve and/or preserve ß-cell function. The cardiac tissue is affected by both the classic white AT-secreted adipokines and the newly recognized brown AT (BAT)-secreted BATokines or lipokines that alter lipid deposition and ventricular function. In the liver, adipokines affect hepatic gluconeogenesis, lipid accumulation, and insulin sensitivity, underscoring the importance of adipose-liver communication in the pathogenesis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. In this perspective, we outline what is currently known about the effects of individual adipokines on pancreatic ß-cells, liver, and the heart.

Cross-species single-cell comparison of systemic and cardiac inflammatory responses after cardiac injury.

The immune system coordinates the response to cardiac injury and is known to control regenerative and fibrotic scar outcomes in the heart and subsequent chronic low-grade inflammation associated with heart failure. Here we profiled the inflammatory response to heart injury using single cell transcriptomics to compare and contrast two experimental models with disparate outcomes. We used adult mice, which like humans lack the ability to fully recover and zebrafish which spontaneously regenerate after heart injury. The extracardiac reaction to cardiomyocyte necrosis was also interrogated to assess the specific peripheral tissue and immune cell reaction to chronic stress. Cardiac macrophages are known to play a critical role in determining tissue homeostasis by healing versus scarring. We identified distinct transcriptional clusters of monocytes/macrophages in each species and found analogous pairs in zebrafish and mice. However, the reaction to myocardial injury was largely disparate between mice and zebrafish. The dichotomous response to heart damage between the mammalian and zebrafish monocytes/macrophages may underlie the impaired regenerative process in mice, representing a future therapeutic target.

Impact of acute TTE-evidenced cardiac dysfunction on in-hospital and outpatient mortality: A multicenter NYC COVID-19 registry study.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 is associated with cardiac dysfunction. This study tested the relative prognostic role of left (LV), right and bi- (BiV) ventricular dysfunction on mortality in a large multicenter cohort of patients during and after acute COVID-19 hospitalization. METHODS/RESULTS: All hospitalized COVID-19 patients who underwent clinically indicated transthoracic echocardiography within 30 days of admission at four NYC hospitals between March 2020 and January 2021 were studied. Images were re-analyzed by a central core lab blinded to clinical data. Nine hundred patients were studied (28% Hispanic, 16% African-American), and LV, RV and BiV dysfunction were observed in 50%, 38% and 17%, respectively. Within the overall cohort, 194 patients had TTEs prior to COVID-19 diagnosis, among whom LV, RV, BiV dysfunction prevalence increased following acute infection (p<0.001). Cardiac dysfunction was linked to biomarker-evidenced myocardial injury, with higher prevalence of troponin elevation in patients with LV (14%), RV (16%) and BiV (21%) dysfunction compared to those with normal BiV function (8%, all p<0.05). During in- and out-patient follow-up, 290 patients died (32%), among whom 230 died in the hospital and 60 post-discharge. Unadjusted mortality risk was greatest among patients with BiV (41%), followed by RV (39%) and LV dysfunction (37%), compared to patients without dysfunction (27%, all p<0.01). In multivariable analysis, any RV dysfunction, but not LV dysfunction, was independently associated with increased mortality risk (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: LV, RV and BiV function declines during acute COVID-19 infection with each contributing to increased in- and out-patient mortality risk. RV dysfunction independently increases mortality risk.

A beta cell subset with enhanced insulin secretion and glucose metabolism is reduced in type 2 diabetes.

The pancreatic islets are composed of discrete hormone-producing cells that orchestrate systemic glucose homeostasis. Here we identify subsets of beta cells using a single-cell transcriptomic approach. One subset of beta cells marked by high CD63 expression is enriched for the expression of mitochondrial metabolism genes and exhibits higher mitochondrial respiration compared with CD63lo beta cells. Human and murine pseudo-islets derived from CD63hi beta cells demonstrate enhanced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion compared with pseudo-islets from CD63lo beta cells. We show that CD63hi beta cells are diminished in mouse models of and in humans with type 2 diabetes. Finally, transplantation of pseudo-islets generated from CD63hi but not CD63lo beta cells into diabetic mice restores glucose homeostasis. These findings suggest that loss of a specific subset of beta cells may lead to diabetes. Strategies to reconstitute or maintain CD63hi beta cells may represent a potential anti-diabetic therapy.

Monoalkylglycerol ether lipids promote adipogenesis.

The molecular mechanisms that lead to the generation of adipose tissue (adipogenesis) are of basic and biomedical interest. Cellular models of adipogenesis have proven extremely valuable in defining biomolecules-primarily genes and proteins-that regulate adipogenesis. Here, the analysis of differentiating adipocytes using an untargeted metabolomics approach led to the discovery of the monoalkylglycerol ethers as a natural class of adipocyte differentiation factors.

The mitochondrial calcium uniporter promotes arrhythmias caused by high-fat diet.

Obesity and diabetes increase the risk of arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. However, the molecular mechanisms of arrhythmia caused by metabolic abnormalities are not well understood. We hypothesized that mitochondrial dysfunction caused by high fat diet (HFD) promotes ventricular arrhythmia. Based on our previous work showing that saturated fat causes calcium handling abnormalities in cardiomyocytes, we hypothesized that mitochondrial calcium uptake contributes to HFD-induced mitochondrial dysfunction and arrhythmic events. For experiments, we used mice with conditional cardiac-specific deletion of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter (Mcu), which is required for mitochondrial calcium uptake, and littermate controls. Mice were used for in vivo heart rhythm monitoring, perfused heart experiments, and isolated cardiomyocyte experiments. MCU KO mice are protected from HFD-induced long QT, inducible ventricular tachycardia, and abnormal ventricular repolarization. Abnormal repolarization may be due, at least in part, to a reduction in protein levels of voltage gated potassium channels. Furthermore, isolated cardiomyocytes from MCU KO mice exposed to saturated fat are protected from increased reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondrial dysfunction, and abnormal calcium handling. Activation of calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CaMKII) corresponds with the increase in arrhythmias in vivo. Additional experiments showed that CaMKII inhibition protects cardiomyocytes from the mitochondrial dysfunction caused by saturated fat. Hearts from transgenic CaMKII inhibitor mice were protected from inducible ventricular tachycardia after HFD. These studies identify mitochondrial dysfunction caused by calcium overload as a key mechanism of arrhythmia during HFD. This work indicates that MCU and CaMKII could be therapeutic targets for arrhythmia caused by metabolic abnormalities.

A global metabolite profiling approach to identify protein-metabolite interactions.

Understanding the biochemical functions of proteins is an important factor in elucidating their cellular and physiological functions. Due to the predominance of biopolymer interactions in biology, many methods have been designed to interrogate and identify biologically relevant interactions that proteins make to DNA, RNA, and other proteins. Complementary approaches that can elucidate binding interactions between proteins and small molecule metabolites will impact the understanding of protein-metabolite interactions and fill a need that is outside the scope of current methods. Here, we demonstrate the ability to identify natural protein-metabolite interactions from complex metabolite mixtures by combining a protein-mediated small molecule enrichment step with a global metabolite profiling platform.

Clinical Overview of Obesity and Diabetes Mellitus as Risk Factors for Atrial Fibrillation and Sudden Cardiac Death.

The epidemics of obesity and diabetes mellitus are associated with an increased incidence of both atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common sustained arrhythmia in adults, and sudden cardiac death (SCD). Obesity and DM are known to have adverse effects on cardiac structure and function. The pathologic mechanisms are thought to involve cardiac tissue remodeling, metabolic dysregulation, inflammation, and oxidative stress. Clinical data suggest that left atrial size, epicardial fat pad thickness, and other modifiable risk factors such as hypertension, glycemic control, and obstructive sleep apnea may mediate the association with AF. Data from human atrial tissue biopsies demonstrate alterations in atrial lipid content and evidence of mitochondrial dysfunction. With respect to ventricular arrhythmias, abnormalities such as long QT syndrome, frequent premature ventricular contractions, and left ventricular hypertrophy with diastolic dysfunction are commonly observed in obese and diabetic humans. The increased risk of SCD in this population may also be related to excessive cardiac lipid deposition and insulin resistance. While nutritional interventions have had limited success, perhaps due to poor long-term compliance, weight loss and improved cardiorespiratory fitness may reduce the frequency and severity of AF.

A LC-MS-based workflow for measurement of branched fatty acid esters of hydroxy fatty acids.

Branched fatty acid esters of hydroxy fatty acids (FAHFAs) are a recently discovered class of endogenous mammalian lipids with antidiabetic and anti-inflammatory effects. We previously identified 16 different FAHFA families, such as branched palmitic acid esters of hydroxy stearic acids (PAHSAs); each family consists of multiple isomers in which the branched ester is at different positions (e.g., 5- and 9-PAHSA). We anticipate increased need for PAHSA measurements as markers of metabolic and inflammatory health. In this protocol, we provide a detailed description of the extraction of FAHFAs from human or mouse tissues, their enrichment by solid-phase extraction and subsequent analysis by LC-MS. For a sample size of 6-12, the time frame is 2-3 d.

Synthesis and self-assembly of functionalized donor-sigma-acceptor molecules.

[structure: see text] 3,5,7-Tris(arylmethyl)-1-aza-adamantanetrione donor-sigma-acceptor compounds have been synthesized in four steps. Computational and (1)H NMR analyses rationalize the solubility, gelation, and conformational properties of the C3-symmetric molecules toward employing sigma-coupled donor-acceptor interactions in molecular self-assembly.

Exploring disease through metabolomics.

Metabolomics approaches provide an analysis of changing metabolite levels in biological samples. In the past decade, technical advances have spurred the application of metabolomics in a variety of diverse research areas spanning basic, biomedical, and clinical sciences. In particular, improvements in instrumentation, data analysis software, and the development of metabolite databases have accelerated the measurement and identification of metabolites. Metabolomics approaches have been applied to a number of important problems, which include the discovery of biomarkers as well as mechanistic studies aimed at discovering metabolites or metabolic pathways that regulate cellular and physiological processes. By providing access to a portion of biomolecular space not covered by other profiling approaches (e.g., proteomics and genomics), metabolomics offers unique insights into small molecule regulation and signaling in biology. In the following review, we look at the integration of metabolomics approaches in different areas of basic and biomedical research, and try to point out the areas in which these approaches have enriched our understanding of cellular and physiological biology, especially within the context of pathways linked to disease.