Impact of Adiposity and Fat Distribution, Rather Than Obesity, on Antibodies as an Illustration of Weight-Loss-Independent Exercise Benefits

Obesity and Bone Mineral Density Protection Paradox in Chronic Kidney Disease: Secreted Protein Acidic and Rich in Cysteine as a Piece of the Puzzle?

Obesity is a health condition that represents a risk factor for numerous diseases and complications. However, obesity might also have-to some extent-some "benefits" in certain situations. This includes potential bone protection in patients suffering from chronic kidney disease. In an attempt to explain such a paradox, we highlight secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) as a hypothetical mediator of this protection. Indeed, SPARC properties provide a logical rationale to describe such bone protection via its overexpression combined with its calcium-binding and collagen-binding properties. We believe that exploring such hypotheses could open new doors to elucidate unknown pathways towards developing a new generation of molecular therapies.

Pancreastatin inhibitor PSTi8 ameliorates insulin resistance by decreasing fat accumulation and oxidative stress in high-fat diet-fed mice

Abnormal fat accumulation, enhanced free fatty acids (FFA) release, and their metabolites cause insulin resistance (IR) in major glucose-lipid metabolic organs such as skeletal muscle and adipose tissue. However, excessive lipolysis and FFA release from adipose tissue elevate plasma FFA levels leading to oxidative stress and skeletal muscle IR. Indeed, in obese individuals, there is enhanced pro-inflammatory secretion from adipose tissue influencing insulin signaling in skeletal muscles. Here, we investigated the effect of PSTi8 on FFA-induced IR in both in vitro and in vivo models. Palmitate (Pal)-treated 3T3-L1 cells increased lipid accumulation as well as lipolysis, which reduced the insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. PSTi8 treatment significantly prevented Pal-induced lipid accumulation, and release and enhanced insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. It further reduced the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines from Pal-treated 3T3-L1 cells as well as from adipose tissue explants. In addition, PSTi8 treatment decreases M1 surface markers in Pal-treated bone marrow-derived monocytes (BMDM). PSTi8 treatment also significantly enhanced the Pal-mediated reduced skeletal muscle glucose disposal and reduced intracellular oxidative stress. In vitro effect of PSTi8 was consistent with in vivo HFD-fed mice IR model. PSTi8 treatment in HFD-fed mice significantly improved glucose metabolism and enhanced skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity with reduced adiposity and pro-inflammatory cytokines. Taken together, our results support that PSTi8 treatment can protect both adipose and skeletal muscles from FFA-induced IR.

The Antibody Response to the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Booster in Healthcare Workers: Association between the IgG Antibody Titers and Anthropometric and Body Composition Parameters

BACKGROUND

Research shows that in most people, two-dose vaccination helps to shape the humoral response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Further studies are required to learn about the vaccine's effectiveness after boosting.

METHODS

We conducted a prospective study among 103 healthcare workers (HCWs) from a regional multi-specialty hospital vaccinated with three doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine. We compared their immunoglobulin G (IgG) titers 14 days after the second dose with those 21 days after the booster. We also compared their anthropometric and body composition parameters with IgG concentrations at the same time points.

RESULTS

Twenty-one days after the booster, all study participants were seropositive. Their mean IgG antibody titers were significantly lower than 14 days after the second dose (158.94 AU/mL ± 90.34 AU/mL vs. 505.79 AU/mL ± 367.16 AU/mL). Post-booster Spearman's correlation analysis showed a significantly weak correlation between the IgG antibody titer and parameters related to muscle tissue and adipose tissue (including body fat mass).

CONCLUSIONS

The BNT162b2 booster stimulates the humoral response to a lesser extent than the two-dose BNT162b2 primary vaccination. The adipose and muscle tissue parameters show a weak positive correlation with the SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody titers.

Genetic Expression between Ageing and Exercise: Secreted Protein Acidic and Rich in Cysteine as a Potential “Exercise Substitute” Antiageing Therapy

Ageing is the effect of time on biological entities. It represents a risk factor for a variety of diseases and health disorders; thus, therapeutic options are required to tackle ageing issues. Modern geriatric medicine prescribes exercise to counteract ageing effects. This work presents secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) as a potential antiageing therapy. Indeed, SPARC declines with ageing, exercise induces SPARC, and SPARC overexpression in mice mimics exercise. Thus, we hypothesize that SPARC is an exercise-induced factor that is beyond—at least part of—the antiageing effects induced by exercise. This could become a potential antiageing therapy for the elderly that counteracts ageing by mimicking the effects of exercise without needing to perform exercise. This is of particular importance because ageing usually reduces mobility and age-related diseases can reduce the ability to perform the required physical activity. On the other hand, the possibilities of mimicking exercise benefits via SPARC are not limited to ageing, and can be applied in various contexts in which exercise cannot be performed because of physical disabilities, health disorders, or limited mobility.

Exercise, Diet and Sleeping as Regenerative Medicine Adjuvants: Obesity and Ageing as Illustrations

Regenerative medicine uses the biological and medical knowledge on how the cells and tissue regenerate and evolve in order to develop novel therapies. Health conditions such as ageing, obesity and cancer lead to an impaired regeneration ability. Exercise, diet choices and sleeping pattern have significant impacts on regeneration biology via diverse pathways including reducing the inflammatory and oxidative components. Thus, exercise, diet and sleeping management can be optimized towards therapeutic applications in regenerative medicine. It could allow to prevent degeneration, optimize the biological regeneration and also provide adjuvants for regenerative medicine.

Diet Impact on Obesity beyond Calories and Trefoil Factor Family 2 (TFF2) as an Illustration: Metabolic Implications and Potential Applications

Obesity is a health problem with increasing impacts on public health, economy and even social life. In order to reestablish the energy balance, obesity management focuses mainly on two pillars; exercise and diet. Beyond the contribution to the caloric intake, the diet nutrients and composition govern a variety of properties. This includes the energy balance-independent properties and the indirect metabolic effects. Whereas the energy balance-independent properties are close to "pharmacological" effects and include effects such as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, the indirect metabolic effects represent the contribution a diet can have on energy metabolism beyond the caloric contribution itself, which include the food intake control and metabolic changes. As an illustration, we also described the metabolic implication and hypothetical pathways of the high-fat diet-induced gene Trefoil Factor Family 2. The properties the diet has can have a variety of applications mainly in pharmacology and nutrition and further explore the "pharmacologically" active food towards potential therapeutic applications.

Ageing and Obesity Shared Patterns: From Molecular Pathogenesis to Epigenetics

In modern societies, ageing and obesity represent medical challenges for healthcare professionals and caregivers. Obesity and ageing share common features including the related cellular and molecular pathways as well as the impacts they have as risk factors for a variety of diseases and health problems. Both of these health problems also share exercise and a healthy lifestyle as the best therapeutic options. Importantly, ageing and obesity also have common epigenetic changes (histone modification, DNA methylation, noncoding RNAs, and chromatin remodeling) that are also impacted by exercise. This suggests that epigenetic pathways are among the mechanisms via which exercise induces its benefits, including ageing and obesity improvements. Exploring these interrelations and based on the fact that both ageing and obesity represent risk factors for each other, would lead to optimizing the available therapeutic approaches towards improved obesity management and healthy ageing.

Post-Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19): Toward a Severe Multi-Level Health Crisis?

There were already numerous challenges facing the healthcare system prior to the ongoing coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Although we look forward to ending this pandemic, it is still expected that the healthcare system will face further challenges leading to a multi-level health crisis. Indeed, after the COVID-19 pandemic, there will still be COVID-19 active cases and those left with health problems following COVID-19 infection who will be of a particular impact. In addition, we also have the health problems that either emerged or worsened during COVID-19, especially with the reduced ability of the healthcare system to take care of many non COVID-19 patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such expected evolution of the situation highlights the necessity for the decision-makers to consider applying serious reforms and take quick measures to prevent a post-COVID-19 health crisis.