RG12: Diobesity

RG12 is committed to establishing an integrated picture of obesity, prediabetes and diabetes, and their comorbidities. The group has made significant progress in the field of Diobesity integrating the analysis of four main organs (gut, liver, carotid body, brain) and their inter-relations.

Team: multidisciplinary teams of basic, translational and clinician scientists, which warrants the needed bidirectional communication for a translational approach.

Main objective: to identify and understand disease progression patterns and commonly shared etiological metabolic mechanisms that should be targeted with respect to preventive and therapeutic care within a truly translational medicine environment.

Specific objectives: based on a multi-layered strategy, from animal models to the study of existing cohorts and real world data in a systems medicine approach:

  • the influence of hepatic subclinical inflammatory states on primary hyperinsulinemia-driven insulin resistance and lipogenesis; hypothalamic control of hyperinsulinemia derived from insulin clearance suppression; and inter-organ communication trough neuronal and exosome based communication processes (MP Macedo and JF Raposo);
  • and the study of the influence of the autonomic nervous system on diabetes and obesity, in particular the role of carotid body in the genesis of Diobesity (S Conde).

 

Relevant collaborations: APDP-Diabetes Portugal (one of the biggest outpatient clinics in Europe exclusively dedicated to integrative diabetes care) allows for an exceptional scientific-clinical environment which aims at early-diagnosis, identification of biomarkers for disease stratification and design new and novel approaches to foster precision medicine.

 

Keywords: Diabetes; Obesity: Carotid body; Bioelectronic medicine; Insulin.

 

Latest Publications

Bugalho P, Mendonça M, Lampreia T, Miguel R, Barbosa R, Salavisa M (2018) Heart rate variability in Parkinson disease and idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorderClinical Autonomic Research 28(6): 557-564

Tomas L, Edsfeldt A, Mollet IG, Perisic Matic L, Prehn C, Adamski J, Paulsson-Berne G, Hedin U, Nilsson J, Bengtsson E, Gonçalves I, Björkbacka H (2018) Altered metabolism distinguishes high-risk from stable carotid atherosclerotic plaques. European Heart Journal 39(24): 2301-2310

Sacramento JF, Chew DJ, Melo BF, Donegá M, Dopson W, Guarino MP, Robinson A, Prieto-Lloret J, Patel S, Holinski BJ, Ramnarain N, Pikov V, Famm K, Conde SV (2018) Bioelectronic modulation of carotid sinus nerve activity in the rat: a potential therapeutic approach for type 2 diabetes. Diabetologia 61(3):700-710

Conde SV (2018) Ablation of the carotid bodies in disease: meeting its adverse effects. The Journal of Physiology 596(15):2955-2955

Conde SV, Sacramento JF, Guarino MP (2018) Carotid body: a metabolic sensor implicated in insulin resistance. Physiological Genomics 50(3):208-214