Disease Management for Adenovirus 36-Induced Obesity

07/14/2017

Betty Zhou​

Volume 2
Fall 2016 / Winter 2017

Global obesity rates continue to increase exponentially with no effective, cause-specific treatment or prevention strategies currently available. The recent trends in obesity prevalence suggest that obesity may have an infectious origin, termed infectobesity. Numerous studies have shown a strong correlation between adenovirus 36 (Ad36) seropositivity and obesity, and investigation into the pathological role of Ad36 in obesity may provide breakthroughs for addressing the worldwide obesity epidemic. Adenoviruses are members of the Adenoviridae family and are non-enveloped, icosahedral, doubled-stranded DNA viruses; more than 0 serotypes are known to cause disease in humans. Adenoviruses commonly infect the upper respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, and conjunctiva; and are transmitted from person to person through airborne spread, direct contact, or a fecal-oral route. Ad36 appears to promote chronic obesity by maintaining low grade chronic inflammation through monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP-1) and stimulating adiposity through the viral E4orf1 gene. In addition, extensive research suggests an important role for thethe gut microbiota in metabolic diseases such as obesity. Using a personalized medicine approach, this article addresses three important research areas: 1) coupling microbiome sequencing with metabolite profiling to discover biomarkers for susceptibility to Ad36-induced obesity; 2) using longitudinal studies involving PCR monitoring of Ad36 infection to determine the reservoir of Ad36-induced obesity; and 3) providing cause-specific treatment and prevention strategies for Ad36-induced obesity by PCR monitoring of serum Ad36 viral load in Ad36-infected individuals. This proposed personalized medicine approach will enable the monitoring of at-risk populations for Ad36-induced obesity through biomarkers and provide effective treatment and prevention strategies such as antivirals, vaccines, or gut microbial shift therapies to address the unresolved worldwide epidemic. Foreseen challenges for this study include bioethical considerations involving the proper storage of personal information and the requirement for robust computational analysis and biological interpretation of collected sequencing data.