AD-36
Encyclopedia
Human adenovirus 36 or Ad-36 or Adv36 is one of 52 types of adenoviruses known to infect human
s. AD-36 was first isolated in 1978 from the feces of a girl suffering from diabetes and enteritis, and has long been recognized as a cause of respiratory and eye infections in humans.
It was first shown to be associated with obesity
in chicken
s by Dr. Nikhil Dhurandhar
.
There has been a positive correlation between body fat and the presence of AD-36 antibodies in the blood. Previous research showed that chicken or mice injected with similar types of viruses show a statistically significant weight gain.
To date, AD-36 is the only human adenovirus that has been linked with human obesity, present in 30% of obese humans and 11% of nonobese humans. In addition, a study of obese Americans indicates that about 30% of the obese individuals and only 5% of non-obese individuals have antibodies to Ad-36. Another study determined that children with the virus averaged 52 pounds heavier than those with no signs of it and obese children with the virus averaged 35 pounds heavier than obese children with no trace of the virus. AD-36 also causes obesity in chickens, mice, rats, and monkeys.
AD-36 infection can induce cellular differentiation
of 3T3-L1
preadipocytes and stem cell
s derived from human adipose tissue
.
On January 26, 2009, many popular internet news portals ran reports of the pending release of scientific research by Professor Nikhil Dhurandhar (Pennington Biomedical Research Centre, Louisiana) implicating AD-36 as a potential cause for Britain's relatively high rate of adult obesity.
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
s. AD-36 was first isolated in 1978 from the feces of a girl suffering from diabetes and enteritis, and has long been recognized as a cause of respiratory and eye infections in humans.
It was first shown to be associated with obesity
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
in chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
s by Dr. Nikhil Dhurandhar
Nikhil Dhurandhar
Dr. Nikhil V. Dhurandhar is a university professor who has published details about the adipogenic effect of the human adenovirus AD-36 or Adv36 on laboratory animals , and also its association with human obesity....
.
There has been a positive correlation between body fat and the presence of AD-36 antibodies in the blood. Previous research showed that chicken or mice injected with similar types of viruses show a statistically significant weight gain.
To date, AD-36 is the only human adenovirus that has been linked with human obesity, present in 30% of obese humans and 11% of nonobese humans. In addition, a study of obese Americans indicates that about 30% of the obese individuals and only 5% of non-obese individuals have antibodies to Ad-36. Another study determined that children with the virus averaged 52 pounds heavier than those with no signs of it and obese children with the virus averaged 35 pounds heavier than obese children with no trace of the virus. AD-36 also causes obesity in chickens, mice, rats, and monkeys.
AD-36 infection can induce cellular differentiation
Cellular differentiation
In developmental biology, cellular differentiation is the process by which a less specialized cell becomes a more specialized cell type. Differentiation occurs numerous times during the development of a multicellular organism as the organism changes from a simple zygote to a complex system of...
of 3T3-L1
3T3-L1
3T3-L1 is a cell line derived from 3T3 cells that is used in biological research on adipose tissue. 3T3-L1 cells have a fibroblast-like morphology, but, under appropriate conditions, the cells differentiate into an adipocyte-like phenotype....
preadipocytes and stem cell
Stem cell
This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
s derived from human adipose tissue
Adipose tissue
In histology, adipose tissue or body fat or fat depot or just fat is loose connective tissue composed of adipocytes. It is technically composed of roughly only 80% fat; fat in its solitary state exists in the liver and muscles. Adipose tissue is derived from lipoblasts...
.
Public awareness
On March 18, 2006 the research of Richard Atkinson (University of Wisconsin) was posted on some websites. In those studies, blood tests conducted on over 2000 Australians showed that more than 20% of the study participants had contracted Ad-36 viral infection.On January 26, 2009, many popular internet news portals ran reports of the pending release of scientific research by Professor Nikhil Dhurandhar (Pennington Biomedical Research Centre, Louisiana) implicating AD-36 as a potential cause for Britain's relatively high rate of adult obesity.
External links
- "The Fat Virus: Could Obesity Be Contagious?" at WebMDWebMDWebMD is an American corporation which provides health information services. It was founded in 1996 by Jim Clark and Pavan Nigam as Healthscape, later Healtheon, and then acquired WebMD in 1999 to form Healtheon/WebMD...
- "Can a virus make you fat?" at BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
- "Contagious obesity? Identifying the human adenoviruses that may make us fat" at Science Blog
- "Common virus may contribute to obesity in some people, new study shows" at Biology News Net
- "Fat Virus, Ad-36 Blamed For Obesity Epidemic In Australians" at Medindia.com