Mitochondria are dynamic organelles that play a key role in energy conversion. Optimal mitochondrial function is ensured by a quality-control system tightly coupled to fusion and fission. In this connection, mitofusin 2 (Mfn2) participates in mitochondrial fusion and undergoes repression in muscle from obese or type 2 diabetic patients. Here, we provide in vivo evidence that Mfn2 plays an essential role in metabolic homeostasis. Liver-specific ablation of Mfn2 in mice led to numerous metabolic abnormalities, characterized by glucose intolerance and enhanced hepatic gluconeogenesis. Mfn2 deficiency impaired insulin signaling in liver and muscle. Furthermore, Mfn2 deficiency was associated with endoplasmic reticulum stress, enhanced hydrogen peroxide concentration, altered reactive oxygen species handling, and active JNK. Chemical chaperones or the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine ameliorated glucose tolerance and insulin signaling in liver-specific Mfn2 KO mice. This study provides an important description of a unique unexpected role of Mfn2 coordinating mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum function, leading to modulation of insulin signaling and glucose homeostasis in vivo.mitochondrial dynamics | insulin resistance | metabolism | oxidative stress

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The authors describe a new approach to studying cellular lipid profiles and propose a compensatory mechanism that may help maintain the normal membrane function of adipocytes in the context of obesity.

SummaryKnowledge of the full target space of bioactive substances, approved and investigational drugs as well as chemical probes, provides important insights into therapeutic potential and possible adverse effects. The existing compound-target bioactivity data resources are often incomparable due to non-standardized and heterogeneous assay types and variability in endpoint measurements. To extract higher value from the existing and future compound target-profiling data, we implemented an open-data web platform, named Drug Target Commons (DTC), which features tools for crowd-sourced compound-target bioactivity data annotation, standardization, curation, and intra-resource integration. We demonstrate the unique value of DTC with several examples related to both drug discovery and drug repurposing applications and invite researchers to join this community effort to increase the reuse and extension of compound bioactivity data.

A score based on MS (glutamate, isoleucine, glycine, lysophosphatidylcholine 16:0, phosphoethanolamine 40:6) and knowledge of AST, fasting insulin, and PNPLA3 genotype is significantly better than a score based on clinical or metabolic profiles alone in determining the risk of NASH.

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Recent evidence from serum metabolomics indicates that specific metabolic disturbances precede β-cell autoimmunity in humans and can be used to identify those children who subsequently progress to type 1 diabetes. The mechanisms behind these disturbances are unknown. Here we show the specificity of the pre-autoimmune metabolic changes, as indicated by their conservation in a murine model of type 1 diabetes. We performed a study in non-obese prediabetic (NOD) mice which recapitulated the design of the human study and derived the metabolic states from longitudinal lipidomics data. We show that female NOD mice who later progress to autoimmune diabetes exhibit the same lipidomic pattern as prediabetic children. These metabolic changes are accompanied by enhanced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, normoglycemia, upregulation of insulinotropic amino acids in islets, elevated plasma leptin and adiponectin, and diminished gut microbial diversity of the Clostridium leptum group. Together, the findings indicate that autoimmune diabetes is preceded by a state of increased metabolic demands on the islets resulting in elevated insulin secretion and suggest alternative metabolic related pathways as therapeutic targets to prevent diabetes.

Ovarian cancer is a heterogeneous disease of low prevalence, but poor survival. Early diagnosis is critical for survival, but it is often challenging because the symptoms of ovarian cancer are subtle and become apparent only during advanced stages of the disease. Therefore, the identification of robust biomarkers of early disease is a clinical priority. Metabolomic profiling is an emerging diagnostic tool enabling the detection of biomarkers reflecting alterations in tumor metabolism, a hallmark of cancer. In this study, we performed metabolomic profiling of serum and tumor tissue from 158 patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) and 100 control patients with benign or non-neoplastic lesions. We report metabolites of hydroxybutyric acid (HBA) as novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers associated with tumor burden and patient survival. The accumulation of HBA metabolites caused by HGSOC was also associated with reduced expression of succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase (encoded by ALDH5A1), and with the presence of an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition gene signature, implying a role for these metabolic alterations in cancer cell migration and invasion. In conclusion, our findings represent the first comprehensive metabolomics analysis in HGSOC and propose a new set of metabolites as biomarkers of disease with diagnostic and prognostic capabilities.