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JOHN VON RADOWITZ
A COMMON cold virus can help make people obese, the latest research suggests.
The discovery could pave the way to "slimming" vaccines or anti-viral drugs, it is claimed.
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Scientists have pinpointed a particular gene in the human virus adenovirus-36 that appears to promote weight gain.
They hope vaccines or drugs that target the gene may be able to prevent many cases of obesity in the future.
A link between adenovirus-36 (ad-36) and obesity has long been suspected.
The virus is one of a large family of infectious agents thought to account for around half of all common colds.
Typically it causes sore eyes and respiratory symptoms.
Earlier laboratory work had demonstrated that ad-36 could lead infected animals to accumulate fat.
An epidemiological study has also shown that 30 per cent of obese people carry the virus compared with 11 per cent of lean individuals.
However, evidence that the virus can actually cause fat levels to increase in human cells has been lacking until now.
An American team led by Dr Magdalena Pasarica, from Pennington Biomedical Research Centre at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, obtained tissue samples from a cross-section of patients who had undergone liposuction.
From the samples, they isolated adult stem cells - immature cells which have not yet developed a specific role in the body.
Half the stem cells were exposed to ad-36 and half not.
After a week, most of the virus-infected stem cells, but none of the non-infected cells, had grown into fat-storage cells.
"We're not saying that a virus is the only cause of obesity, but this study provides stronger evidence that some obesity cases may involve viral infections," said Dr Pasarica, who presented her findings at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.
"We would ultimately like to identify the underlying factors that predispose some obese people to develop this virus and eventually find a way to treat it," she said.
Another group from the Pennington Biomedical Research Centre recently identified a gene called E40rfl in the virus which appears to help animals grow fat.
Priming the immune system to recognise and attack the protein made by the gene, or blocking the gene's activity with drugs, could provide new ways of tackling certain cases of obesity, say the researchers.
Dr Pasarica does not rule out the possibility of other human viruses also contributing to obesity.
At present, the biomolecular mechanism through which ad-36 promotes the development of fat cells is not known.
Nor do scientists know how long the virus remains in the bodies of obese individuals, or how long its fat-enhancing effects might continue after it has gone.
A recent study showed that animals with the virus remained obese for up to six months after their infection had cleared.
Tam Fry, board member of the National Obesity Forum and chairman of the Child Growth Foundation, said: "I think you have to take this research seriously and it would be wrong to dismiss it as nonsense.
"But it would be absolutely absurd to assume that obesity is something you 'catch' and cannot be helped.
"It's all extremely interesting stuff, but it's going to be on the outer fringes of obesity.
"The crucial message is that whatever you do you must balance energy in with energy out. If you eat more than you burn, you'll get fat."
• More than 1.2 million Scots are "abdominally obese", putting them at heightened risk of health problems, according to a study by the pharmaceuticals company Sanofi Aventis.
It warned that almost a third of Scots are now at risk of developing heart disease and diabetes because of their expanding waistlines, where extra fat may be a killer.
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=1322842007
A COMMON cold virus can help make people obese, the latest research suggests.
The discovery could pave the way to "slimming" vaccines or anti-viral drugs, it is claimed.
<SCRIPT src="http://www.scotsman.com/js/init_250x250.js" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT><SCRIPT src="http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/adj/scotsman.jp/news;site=news;nl1=Health;sz=250x250;tile=1;ord=55 55585?" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT><NOSCRIPT></NOSCRIPT>
Scientists have pinpointed a particular gene in the human virus adenovirus-36 that appears to promote weight gain.
They hope vaccines or drugs that target the gene may be able to prevent many cases of obesity in the future.
A link between adenovirus-36 (ad-36) and obesity has long been suspected.
The virus is one of a large family of infectious agents thought to account for around half of all common colds.
Typically it causes sore eyes and respiratory symptoms.
Earlier laboratory work had demonstrated that ad-36 could lead infected animals to accumulate fat.
An epidemiological study has also shown that 30 per cent of obese people carry the virus compared with 11 per cent of lean individuals.
However, evidence that the virus can actually cause fat levels to increase in human cells has been lacking until now.
An American team led by Dr Magdalena Pasarica, from Pennington Biomedical Research Centre at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, obtained tissue samples from a cross-section of patients who had undergone liposuction.
From the samples, they isolated adult stem cells - immature cells which have not yet developed a specific role in the body.
Half the stem cells were exposed to ad-36 and half not.
After a week, most of the virus-infected stem cells, but none of the non-infected cells, had grown into fat-storage cells.
"We're not saying that a virus is the only cause of obesity, but this study provides stronger evidence that some obesity cases may involve viral infections," said Dr Pasarica, who presented her findings at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.
"We would ultimately like to identify the underlying factors that predispose some obese people to develop this virus and eventually find a way to treat it," she said.
Another group from the Pennington Biomedical Research Centre recently identified a gene called E40rfl in the virus which appears to help animals grow fat.
Priming the immune system to recognise and attack the protein made by the gene, or blocking the gene's activity with drugs, could provide new ways of tackling certain cases of obesity, say the researchers.
Dr Pasarica does not rule out the possibility of other human viruses also contributing to obesity.
At present, the biomolecular mechanism through which ad-36 promotes the development of fat cells is not known.
Nor do scientists know how long the virus remains in the bodies of obese individuals, or how long its fat-enhancing effects might continue after it has gone.
A recent study showed that animals with the virus remained obese for up to six months after their infection had cleared.
Tam Fry, board member of the National Obesity Forum and chairman of the Child Growth Foundation, said: "I think you have to take this research seriously and it would be wrong to dismiss it as nonsense.
"But it would be absolutely absurd to assume that obesity is something you 'catch' and cannot be helped.
"It's all extremely interesting stuff, but it's going to be on the outer fringes of obesity.
"The crucial message is that whatever you do you must balance energy in with energy out. If you eat more than you burn, you'll get fat."
• More than 1.2 million Scots are "abdominally obese", putting them at heightened risk of health problems, according to a study by the pharmaceuticals company Sanofi Aventis.
It warned that almost a third of Scots are now at risk of developing heart disease and diabetes because of their expanding waistlines, where extra fat may be a killer.
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=1322842007