Diet Mail - Diet Mail - July 2014, Childhood Obesity | Page 3

RECENT NUTRITIONAL STUDY
Obesity linked to type 2 Diabetes by an absent
protein
Obese people have a higher risk for developing type 2
diabetes, a condition where the body loses its ability to
control glucose. And, while the link between obesity and
type 2 diabetes is statistically evident, biological
explanations are less so. Now scientists have discovered
that a key protein that helps the body control glucose, is
missing in obese people.
Obesity is a common, serious condition that increases risk
of stroke, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and certain types
of cancer, some of the leading causes of preventable
deaths.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, obesity now affects more than a third of
adults in the US, where the cost of the condition was
estimated to be $147 billion in 2008.
Once considered a problem only in the more wealthy
countries, overweight and obesity are now rising rapidly in
low and middle-income countries, particularly in urban
settings.
Type 2 diabetes develops when the body does not make
enough insulin to help it control glucose or the body's cells
become resistant to insulin. The result is high levels of
glucose in the blood, which if untreated, leads to more
serious conditions like blindness, cardiovascular disease,
loss of limbs, and kidney failure.
More than 360 million people around the world have type
2 diabetes, including about 8% of Americans. The World
Health Organization projects that diabetes will be the 7th
leading cause of death worldwide in 2030.

NUCKS protein regulates insulin signaling in cells
In their investigation, the IMCB team discovered that a
protein called NUCKS is an important regulator of insulin
signaling in cells. They showed that endocrine cells lacking
the ability to make the protein had impaired insulin
signaling.
Also, mice bred to lack NUCKS showed "decreased insulin
signaling and increased body weight/fat mass along with
impaired glucose tolerance and reduced insulin
sensitivity, all of which are further exacerbated by a highfat diet," note the authors.

They also found that NUCKS is downregulated - that
is the genes that code for the protein are more or less
inactive - in obese individuals. It was also found to be
downregulated in mice raised on a high fat diet, yet
levels of NUCKS went up upon starvation.
The researchers suggest obese individuals who lack
NUCKS develop insulin resistance and lose the ability
toregulate their glucose effectively, leading them to
have high levels of it in their blood, which makes
them more vulnerable to type 2 diabetes.
First discovery of a direct molecular link between
obesity and type 2 diabetes
They say this is the first time a direct molecular link
has been discovered between obesity and type 2
diabetes, and will lead to new research projects to
identify drugs and lifestyle changes that can restore
NUCKS to normal levels in the body.
Study leader Dr. Vinay Tergaonkar, Principal
Investigator at IMCB, says:
"Every year, billions of dollars are spent on metabolic
diseases and a big part of the expenditure goes to the
drugs for diabetes. The findings in our study have
immense therapeutic implications as they will be
applicable not only to diabetes in obesity, but also to
diabetes as a whole."
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