Epidemiological evidence shows that diabetic patients are susceptible to high temperature weather, and brown adipose tissue (BAT) activity is closely related to type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Activation of BAT under cold stress helps improve T2DM. However, the impact of high temperature on the activity of BAT is still unclear. The study aimed to investigate the impact of heat stress on glucose and lipid metabolism in T2DM mice by influencing BAT activity. High-fat feeding and injecting streptozotocin (STZ) induced model of T2DM mice. All mice were randomly divided into three groups: a normal(N) group, a diabetes (DM) group and a heat stress diabetes (DMHS) group. The DMHS group received heat stress intervention for 3 days. Fasting blood glucose, fasting serum insulin and blood lipids were measured in all three groups. The activity of BAT was assessed by using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), electron microscopy, and PET CT. Furthermore, the UHPLC-Q-TOF MS technique was employed to perform metabolomics analysis of BAT on both DM group and DMHS group. The results of this study indicated that heat stress aggravated the dysregulation of glucose and lipid metabolism, exacerbated mitochondrial dysfunction in BAT and reduced the activity of BAT in T2DM mice. This may be related to the abnormal accumulation of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) in the mitochondria of BAT.
Asia has an intermediate-to-high prevalence of and high morbidity and mortality from hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Optimization of diagnosis and initiation of treatment is one of the crucial strategies for lowering disease burden in this region. Therefore, a panel of 24 experts from 10 Asian countries convened, and reviewed the literature, to develop consensus guidance on diagnosis and initiation of treatment of HBV infection in resource-limited Asian settings. The panel proposed 11 recommendations related to diagnosis, pre-treatment assessment, and indications of therapy of HBV infection, and management of HBV-infected patients with co-infections. In resource-limited Asian settings, testing for hepatitis B surface antigen may be considered as the primary test for diagnosis of HBV infection. Pre-treatment assessments should include tests for complete blood count, liver and renal function, hepatitis B e-antigen (HBeAg), anti-HBe, HBV DNA, co-infection markers and assessment of severity of liver disease. Noninvasive tests such as AST-to-platelet ratio index, fibrosis score 4 or transient elastography may be used as alternatives to liver biopsy for assessing disease severity. Considering the high burden of HBV infection in Asia, the panel adopted an aggressive approach, and recommended initiation of antiviral therapy in all HBV-infected, compensated or decompensated cirrhotic individuals with detectable HBV DNA levels, regardless of HBeAg status or alanine transaminase levels. The panel also developed a simple algorithm for guiding the initiation of treatment in noncirrhotic, HBV-infected individuals. The recommendations proposed herein, may help guide clinicians, to optimize the diagnosis and improvise the treatment rates for HBV infection in Asia.
In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field.