Obesity is connected with numerous diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, cancer, and nervous system dysfunctions. Obesity is affected by genetic, environmental, and cultural factors. However, numerous studies indicate that several pathogens might cause obesity. This review discusses recent data and the characteristics of pathogens that are implicated in obesity. In particular, human adenovirus 36 (Ad36) is the most clearly implicated virus in human obesity. It was recently shown that obese groups from the USA, Korea, and Italy have a higher prevalence of serum antibodies against Ad36. The mechanisms of Ad36-induced obesity remain unclear. However, glucose uptake and inflammation are possible mechanisms of Ad36-induced obesity. Overall, this new understanding of causes of obesity has developed into the concept of 'infectobesity' and the possibility of developing a 'vaccine' or 'therapeutic agents' for obesity. million women were considered to be obese (Fig. 1A and 1B). Thus, more than one in ten of the world's adult population was obese. Close to 35 million overweight children live in developing countries and eight million in developed countries, which means that overweight children are a problem in all countries. Overweight and obesity also account for 44% of the diabetes burden, 23% of the ischemic heart disease burden, and between 7% and 41% of certain cancer burdens. Recently, the obesity rate among Koreans has increased drastically (Fig. 1C). In 1995, 11.7% of women and 18% of men were considered to be obese.However, 29.4% of women and 32.6% of men were considered obese in 2001 and the obese ratio recently increased further. There was also a noticeable increase in the ratio of obese children and adolescents (1).The costs of treating obesity and obesity-related metabolic disease account for 40% of total health expenditure in the USA and this recent trend is dramatically increasing (2).The social and economic cost of obesity therapy is more than 1 billion dollar and diabetes treatments account for 19.2% of the national medical insurance premium in Korea (3). Thus, obesity-related diseases are a severe loss to the national economy.There are many causes for obesity, such as genetics, medical problems, or psychiatric illness. Simply put, obesity is a result of an energy imbalance, where the energy intake is greater than energy expenditure (4) and excess energy accumulates in adipose tissue. Increasing rates of obesity at the societal level are attributed to easy access to a palatable diet, increased dependence on cars, and mechanized manufacturing. However, the recent increase in obesity might be
Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II expression is critical for the presentation of antigens in the immune response to viral infection. Consequently, some viruses regulate the MHC class II-mediated presentation of viral antigens as a mechanism of immune escape. In this study, we found that Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) infection transiently increased IK expression, which reduced the expression of MHC class II (I-A/I-E) on splenic B cells. Interestingly, CVB3-induced IK elevated cAMP, a downstream molecule of the G protein-coupled receptors, which inhibited MHC class II presentation on B cells. Transgenic mice expressing truncated IK showed lower expression of MHC class II on B cells than did wild-type mice after CVB3 infection. Taken together, these results imply that IK plays a role in downregulating MHC class II expression on B cells during CVB3 infection through the induction of cAMP.
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