Infection with the Obesity Virus is Associated with Childhood Obesity
For Immediate Release
August 25, 2009
Richmond, Va - The first report of obesity in children infected with human adenovirus-36 (Ad-36), the “obesity virus,” was published in the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity by investigators from the Obetech Obesity Research Center, Richmond, VA, the National Police Hospital, and National Children’s Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
Drs. Richard Atkinson, Insil Lee, Hye-Jung Shin, and Jia He found that 30% of obese Korean children carried antibodies to Ad-36 and that infected children weighed more than uninfected children. The authors noted that obesity is present in 11% to 29% of Korean children (depending on criteria used) and may be an explanation for the dramatic increase in childhood diabetes that has been seen in Asian children. The prevalence of childhood obesity in Korea doubled from 1998 to 2001 and was associated with major increases in cardiovascular risk factors. Korean investigators concluded that obesity and attendant Type 2 diabetes had reached epidemic proportions in Asia and that health consequences of these epidemics threaten to overwhelm health-care systems in the region.
In this study, 84 obese children ranging in age from 8-16 years were weighed and had blood drawn during annual school physicals or at visits to a weight reduction clinic. A total of 25 of the 84 children (30%) were found to have antibodies to Ad-36, specific evidence of past infection with the virus. The infected children weighed 7 kg (15 lb) more than uninfected children and had a significantly higher BMI. The waist circumferences of infected children were almost 6 cm greater (over 2 in). Cardiovascular risk factors such as blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol, and liver function tests were not significantly increased, but in every case were higher in the infected children.
Experimental infection with Ad-36 has been shown in previous publications to cause obesity in chickens, mice, rats, and monkeys. Previous studies showed that in over 500 adult humans tested in the United States, 30% of obese adults had been infected with Ad-36, and the infection correlated highly (p<.001) with excess weight. Infected adults were about 25 kg (over 50 lb) heavier than uninfected. The mechanisms of the weight gain are a direct effect on fat cells in the body. Previous studies of animals deliberately infected with Ad-36 showed that they gained significantly more body fat and body weight and had changes in metabolic functions compared to uninfected control animals. Apparently the effects of the virus are on metabolic rate because food intake did not change, yet the animals gained fat and body weight. Previous studies report that the E4orf1 gene of the Ad-36 virus works directly on fat cells and other cells to alter fat producing enzymes and transcription factors that produce new fat cells. Glucose transport systems are altered in muscle cells and perhaps other cells of the body.
These findings suggest that Ad-36 infection may partly explain the worldwide epidemic of obesity in children and may also explain at least some of the increase in diabetes in children. Further research is needed to develop a vaccine to prevent Ad-36 infection and more antiviral drugs for treatment of the disease if already contracted.
The symptoms of Ad-36 infection are very mild (slight common cold symptoms) and the only way to diagnose it is a laboratory test. There isn’t a cure, but treatments are available for infected people. Once obesity occurs, a rigorous weight management program and drugs are necessary lifelong. Treatment of infected people who have not yet become fat is easier using weight management techniques and drugs.
About Obetech LLC: Provides research resources and laboratory tests to the scientific community, industry, federal agencies, and the general public for viruses that produce obesity. Services include diagnostic assays in humans and animals for obesity viruses by serum neutralization and polymerase chain reaction (PCR), evaluation of effectiveness of antiviral agents, evaluation of immune enhancement properties of antiviral agents and a variety of molecular biology services including molecular cloning, gene expression analysis, and protein expression and purification.
About the Park: The Virginia BioTechnology Research Park is currently home to a unique mix of more than 55 public and private bioscience companies, research institutes affiliated with the VCU Medical Center, and major state and national medical laboratories. These companies are housed in nine buildings totaling more than 1.1 million square feet of space, representing an employee base that exceeds 2,000. The Park’s Biosciences Commercialization Center has been created to take incubator graduates through commercialization to M&A or IPO, giving the Park’s tenants full-scale business assistance. The Commercialization Center is now the home of eight companies from the Israeli life science community and continues to expand its resource base. It has created alliances with leading incubators in Israel. To date, the Park’s incubator and commercialization center has graduated three companies that are now publicly traded.
Contact
Richard L. Atkinson, M.D.
Obetech Obesity Research Center
Virginia Biotechnology Research Park
Phone : (804) 244-9070
Email : ratkinson2@vcu.edu
Louisa Richards
International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO)
Phone : 020 7467 9610
Email : lrichards@iaso.org
Courtney L. Skunda
Virginia BioTechnology Research Park
Phone: (804) 827-2137
E-mail: cskunda@vabiotech.com
Web site: www.vabiotech.com
