News Release

TXNIP -- regulator of glucose homeostasis and potential diabetes drug target and more

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

TXNIP – regulator of glucose homeostasis and potential diabetes drug target

Glucose homeostasis, the appropriate balancing of blood sugar levels, is impaired early in patients who become diabetic, causing life-threatening complications such as kidney failure and heart attacks. Studying the mechanisms of glucose homeostasis and early diabetes, Vamsi Mootha (Massachusetts General Hospital and Broad Institute), Leif Groop (University of Malmo) and colleagues have identified a key regulator of glucose homeostasis in humans. As they report in the international open-access medical journal PLoS Medicine, TXNIP is a gene whose expression is reciprocally regulated by insulin and glucose, TXNIP levels are consistently higher than normal in patients with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes, and such elevated levels can inhibit glucose uptake in muscle and fat cells. Mootha and colleagues propose that TXNIP normally regulates and integrates glucose uptake in the periphery of the human body by acting as a glucose- and insulin-sensitive switch, and that this function becomes compromised early the development of diabetes.

Although many questions remain about the exact role of TXNIP in glucose homeostasis, the study’s results help to explain many of the changes in glucose control that occur early in the development of diabetes. Furthermore, they suggest that interventions designed to modulate the activity of TXNIP might break the vicious cycle that eventually leads to type 2 diabetes.

Citation: Parikh H, Carlsson E, Chutkow WA, Johansson LE, Storgaard H, et al. (2007) TXNIP regulates peripheral glucose metabolism in humans. PLoS Med 4(5): e158.

IN YOUR ARTICLE, PLEASE LINK TO THIS URL, WHICH WILL PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE PUBLISHED PAPER: http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0040158

PRESS-ONLY PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE: http://www.plos.org/press/plme-04-05-mootha.pdf

CONTACTS:
Vamsi Mootha
Massachusetts General Hospital and Broad Institute
Department of Systems Biology and Medicine
185 Cambridge Street, CPZN 5-806
Boston, MA 02114
United States of America
1-617-643-3096
vamsi@hms.harvard.edu

Leif Groop
University Hospital Malmo
Department of Clinical Sciences, Diabetes and Endocrinology
Malmo, Malmo 20502
Sweden
+46 40 391202 or +46 70 5912548 (GSM)
+46-40-391222 (fax)
leif.groop@med.lu.se


FROM THE PLoS MEDICINE MAGAZINE SECTION:

The link between malnutrition and infection

Protein energy malnutrition is a critical, yet underestimated factor in susceptibility to infection, including the “big three” infectious diseases: HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, say researchers in a review article in PLoS Medicine.

The researchers, Ulrich Schaible (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) and Stefan Kauffman (Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology) discuss current concepts and controversies surrounding the complex influences of malnutrition on infection and immunity. They call for new strategies to overcome worldwide illness and death caused by chronic malnutrition in impoverished countries and by the newly emerging public health threat of overnutrition in industrialized societies.

Citation: Schaible UE, Kaufmann SHE (2007) Malnutrition and infection: Complex mechanisms and global impacts. PLoS Med 4(5): e115.

IN YOUR ARTICLE, PLEASE LINK TO THIS URL, WHICH WILL PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE PUBLISHED PAPER: : http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0040115

PRESS-ONLY PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE: http://www.plos.org/press/plme-04-04-schaible.pdf

Related image for press use: http://www.plos.org/press/plme-04-05-schaible.jpg

- Caption: Protein Energy Malnutrition Increases Prevalence of Infection Which Together Leads to Energy Loss of the Individual. On the community level, this burden reduces productivity including food production and perpetuates the relentless spiral of further malnutrition, infection, disease, poverty and socioeconomic and political instability.

CONTACT:
Ulrich Schaible
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Infectious and Tropical Diseases
Immunology Unit
London, WC1E 7HT
United Kingdom
+44 (0) 20 7958 8209
+44 (0) 20 7927 2807 (fax)
Ulrich.Schaible@lshtm.ac.uk


THE FOLLOWING RESEARCH ARTICLES WILL ALSO BE PUBLISHED ONLINE:

ATP Synthesis in Type 2 Diabetes

Michael Roden and colleagues report that even patients with well-controlled insulin-resistant type 2 diabetes have altered mitochondrial function.

Citation: Szendroedi J, Schmid AI, Chmelik M, Toth C, Brehm A, et al. (2007) Muscle mitochondrial ATP synthesis and glucose transport/ phosphorylation in type 2 diabetes. PLoS Med 4(5): e154.

IN YOUR ARTICLE, PLEASE LINK TO THIS URL, WHICH WILL PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE PUBLISHED PAPER: http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0040154

PRESS-ONLY PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE: http://www.plos.org/press/plme-04-05-roden.pdf

CONTACT:
Michael Roden
Karl-Landsteiner Institute of Endocrinology and Metabolism
1. Medical Department, Hanusch Hospital
Heinrich Collin Strasse 30
Vienna, Austria A-1040
Austria
+43 1-91021-85011 (910-210 s/b)
+43 1-91021-85019 (fax)
michael.roden@meduniwien.ac.at

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EMBARGO: MONDAY, 30 April, 5 P.M. PDT

Everything published by PLoS Medicine is Open Access: freely available for anyone to read, download, redistribute and otherwise use, as long as the authorship is properly attributed.

In this week’s press release:

- TXNIP – regulator of glucose homeostasis and potential diabetes drug target

- The link between malnutrition and infection

- ATP Synthesis in Type 2 Diabetes

Please mention PLoS Medicine in your report and use the links below to take your readers straight to the online articles:

About PLoS Medicine

PLoS Medicine is an open access, freely available international medical journal. It publishes original research that enhances our understanding of human health and disease, together with commentary and analysis of important global health issues. For more information, visit http://www.plosmedicine.org

About the Public Library of Science

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. For more information, visit http://www.plos.org


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