'Bad' Protein Linked to Numerous Health Problems

nbahi15 writes "A report in the July 13th edition of the online Journal of Clinical Investigation has linked the aP2 protein to asthma and several other diseases. It also suggests a connection between the metabolic and immune systems and these diseases." From a related Forbes article: "To study the effects of aP2, the researchers created genetically engineered mice that could not produce the protein. 'They're metabolic supermice,' Hotamisligil said. 'We cannot make them obese, diabetic or atherosclerotic. They don't develop fatty liver disease, and they don't develop asthma.' In mice with an animal model of asthma, the researchers found that aP2 regulated the infiltration of inflammatory molecules into the lungs."

Comments

Re:My Question

[imsabbel]

Because in a real enviroment, you actually WANT to get fat in times you have more than enough food.
You know, the whole fat==energy storage thingy.

Re:My Question

[MyLongNickName]

None of those sources indicate a 90% decrease. One says 25-50%.

Another babbles "WE should try to make our mind like land, because land has beautiful virtues, when animal put their excrement on land, it (Land) never express anything angrily, because it (Land) is not swayed or completely indifferent, when human (rich, famous, sage, saint, or perfect people) walk over land, it (Land) feels nothing too, again because it (Land) is not swayed or completely indifferent."

And this is one of the more coherent passages.

I will now erase any memory of this coversation from my memory to make room for something useful.

Re:My Question

[MyLongNickName]

Here is an excellent one: link.

One exerpt: 21. Like myopia, the higher one's intelligence, the more likely one is to be allergic to inhaled substances and, thus, to have asthma. For example, in the study of 2,720 gifted people conducted by this author, more than 80% of those who reported having asthma also had allergies; here, the gifted females were also far more likely than the males to have these disorders, and myopes were nearly twice as likely as non- myopes to have severe or multiple allergies (see section 6.4).

no useful function?

[m874t232]

Called aP2, the protein has no useful function in the body. It only appears during the course of disease, and seems to cause adverse effects on blood sugar levels and fatty acid metabolism.

Proteins without useful functions tend not to stay around in populations. Chances are that this protein is important for something. Good candidates are fighting off various parasitic infections, or dealing with some kind of physiological stresses. Those conditions may not arise much in Western lifestyles, and hence getting rid of aP2 may be a good idea for us, but the protein almost certainly has some kind of useful function under some conditions.

Re:no useful function?

[kozumik]

Proteins without useful functions tend not to stay around in populations. Chances are that this protein is important for something.

If the protein is created by the combination of an ordinarily inert gene and modern environmental conditions (i.e. obesity in the modern calorie abundant and sedentary environment) then the protein would not historically have been "around in populations" and the gene would not have been selected out.

You're making a common mistake, assuming that because nature has evolved us to be fairly optimal/healthy for past historical conditions, that we're optimized by evolution in a general sense for all time; or that all we're evolved to desire is good in the present. Not so.

We're optimized for a very different world then we've created, and in many ways we're maladapted to modern living. Evolution never planned for us getting everything we want or the option to sit all the time and eat as much as we like. In fact our desires are evolved to be healthy in accordance with the scarcity principle i.e. we desire most strongly that which is both needed and scarce.

Things which are historically needed but plentiful are often taken for granted and we've evolved mechanisms to effortlessly prevent gorging on them. Take breathing oxygen for example. Gorging oneself on oxygen isn't exactly a deadly sin because its levels have been plentiful throughout evolutionary history hence we evolved to take just as much as we need. But gorging on eating was recognized as "sinful" when it became possible with the advent of agriculture and when it became necessary for culture to address the inadequacy of evolved instinct to present conditions. We've been dealing with obesity and the "sin" of gluttony ever since.

Re:My Question

[mnmn]

You're right.

Supermetabolic mice will sound nice in the 21st century when everyone is trying to lose weight, and anyone going hungry isn't connected to the Internet. It sounds like 'too much metabolism', which would be terrible during the ice age when people went hungry and wanted to conserve energy.

Genetically engineer yourself without a2P and end up on a deserted island; you'll be the first to die. In many ways its similar to stapling your stomach, you'll need constantly more food. However you might also be hyperactive, incapable of sports like playing golf, precision work that requires patience etc.

Ideally there'd be a pill that would counter a2P for everyone who wants it, so theres no permanent change. It should be a hit like Viagra.

natural way to lower ap2

[osho_gg]

If you read the forbes article it mentions that a natural way to reduce the "bad" ap2 protein is to lose weight if you are over-weight and maintain a healthy weight. It is amazing how so many illnesses can be avoided by just staying in shape and regularly exercising.

And, this way is a lot safer that subjecting your body to pre-clinical drugs tried only on mice.

Osho

The problem with this talk of evolution

[elucido]

People talk about evolution as if we do not control it. Evolution has been a controlled art for a while now, and obviously we are getting it wrong because, well look around you. Sure we could focus on improving our species and our evolution, but it has nothing to do with natural selection, thats ignoring the fact that we have science and brains capable of actually directing our own evolution. Our lack of evolution is due to the fact that we just recently discovered genetics, and even now while we know what genetics is, we rely on religion to tell us how to evolve and live. We are focused a bit too much on appearance and not really focused at all on survival. Read up on transhumanism.

Re:My Question

[krmt]

The Drosophila version of this protein has been shown to be absolutely required for creating leg joints. Without it, you get flies with short stubby legs that can't walk, and as a result die. See this paper for details.

The knockout mice mentioned above also have major problems, from a brief search of the literature. See this and this for example. This implies that the protein has critical functions that are so important that they are somewhat conserved all the way from flies to humans. So important, it seems, that the negative effects of having the protein don't outweigh the positive ones.

Re:My Question

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, that particular conjecture in the study is piss poor if you look at it closely. The conjecture is based on a survey conducted on members of Mensa. Mensa is nowhere near a good representative cross-section of smart people. It boggles the mind, really, how the authors made the leap from the fact that Mensa has a higher percentage of asthmatics and myopes than the average to a correlation between asthma and myopia and intelligence. That is grossly inaccurate.

The only conclusion that you can draw from their study, with respect to this particular topic (which, incidentally, is just a small sidenote in the study), is that there is a correlation between asthma and myopia and Mensa. That's a no-brainer, really. Mensa is self-selected for people whose primary interests are purely intellectual. Myopes and asthmatics are physically predisposed towards activies like those conducted by Mensa. Duh. They seem to have forgotten that there are many people, such as myself, who've posted scores that would allow them into Mensa, but decline to join because their interests lie in areas other than brainteasers and discussions.

You cannot draw statistically valid conclusions about an entire population by studying a self-selected subset of that population.

Re:My Question

[ocelotbob]

Could it actually be a secondary side effect? That because someone is asthmatic, they're more likely to engage in more mentally stimulating activities, due to the fact that physical stimulation is off limits?

Re:My Question

[Anonymous Coward]

If you were to read the abstract of the scientific publication ( http://www.jci.org/cgi/content/abstract/JCI24767v1 - click on Full PDF to view the entire article), you would notice that the aP2 protein "regulates allergic airway inflammation and may provide a link between fatty acid metabolism and asthma".

So, it is involved in the host's immune response to an antigen(whether the antigen is an allergen, a virus, etc). Usually, I consider such a immune response to be beneficial, since it allows the body to respond to an exposure. However, in the case of asthma the inflammation becomes excessive.

Re:Six thousand years

[vidarh]

If humans have undergone mutations at such a high rate that we could've ended up as we are from a "good" design in 6000 years, then that itself would be an argument against intelligent design - it would mean the odds of intelligent life spontaneously arising would need to be far better than even the most optimistic supporter of evolution would dream of suggesting.