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Animal Models

Insulin-sparing and fungible effects of E4orf1 combined with an adipocyte-targeting sequence in mouse models of type 1 and type 2 diabetes

International Journal of Obesity volume 41, pages 1601–1605 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Obesity impairs glycemic control and causes insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Adenovirus 36 (Ad36) infection can increase the uptake of excess glucose from blood into adipocytes by increasing GLUT4 translocation through the Ras–Akt signaling pathway, which bypasses PI3K–Akt-mediated insulin receptor signaling. E4orf1, a viral gene expressed early during Ad36 infection, is responsible for this insulin-sparing effect and may be an alternative target for improving insulin resistance. To deliver the gene to adipocytes only, we connected the adipocyte-targeting sequence (ATS) to the 5′ end of E4orf1 (ATS–E4orf1). In vitro transfection of ATS–E4orf1 into preadipocytes activated factors for GLUT4 translocation and adipogenesis to the same extent as did Hemagglutinin (HA)-E4orf1 transfection as positive reference. Moreover, the Transwell migration assay also showed that ATS–E4orf1 secreted by liver cells activated Akt in preadipocytes. We used a hydrodynamic gene delivery technique to deliver ATS–E4orf1 into high-fat diet-fed and streptozotocin-injected mice (disease models of type 2 and type 1 diabetes, respectively). ATS–E4orf1 improved the ability to eliminate excess glucose from the blood and ameliorated liver function in both disease models. These findings suggest that ATS–E4orf1 has insulin-sparing and fungible effects in type 2 and 1 diabetes independent of the presence of insulin.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant from the Korean Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (HI15C2955 and HI13C0826), the KFDA (16172INFECTION268), and Basic Science Research Program through the NRF funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (NRF-2015M3A9B5030157).

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  1. Department of Biotechnology, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon, Republic of Korea

    I-S Yoon, S Park, R-H Kim, H L Ko & J-H Nam

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  1. I-S Yoon
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Correspondence to J-H Nam.

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the International Journal of Obesity website

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Yoon, IS., Park, S., Kim, RH. et al. Insulin-sparing and fungible effects of E4orf1 combined with an adipocyte-targeting sequence in mouse models of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Int J Obes 41, 1601–1605 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2017.142

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