Some Obesity Cases May Be Due to Virus

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Some Obesity Cases May Be Due to Virus

By: Madeline Ellis

Published: Thursday, 29 January 2009

If you've put on some extra weight lately for no apparent reason you

may be able to attribute the gain to a highly infectious virus known

as AD-36. With symptoms similar to the common cold—runny nose, sore

throat, swollen glands—the virus is passed from person-to-person

through coughs, sneezes, and dirty hands. First infecting the lungs,

it then whisks around to other parts of the body entering fat

cells. " When this virus goes to fat tissue it replicates, making more

copies of itself and in the process increases the number of new fat

cells, which may explain why the fat tissue expands and why people

get fat when they are infected with this virus, " explains Professor

Nikhil Dhurandhar of Pennington Biomedical Research Center in

Louisiana, who has researched this theory for more than a decade.

Dhurandhar and a colleague made the first connection between the

virus and obesity in 1997. Their study of 199 people, presented at an

annual Experimental Biology meeting, found that up to 15 percent of

them carried antibodies to the virus, which indicated that they were

once exposed to the virus itself. Prior to that, Dhurandhar had shown

that another type of adenovirus that affects birds could induce

obesity when injected into chickens.

His team has now documented more than 1,000 patients whose obesity

appears to be linked to infection with the AD-36 virus. His latest

study revealed that 33 percent of overweight adults have contracted

the virus at some point in their lives, while the same is true for

only 11 percent of lean adults. Even people of average weight tended

to be heavier if they had been infected with AD-36. The resultant

weight gain can last for three months, until the body has built up

resistance to the virus.

Some experts agree that viruses might play a role in some obesity

cases. " Adenovirus-36 has the ability to take stem cells and turn

them into fat cells, " said Dr. Guilford Hartley, the medical director

of the Hennepin Bariatric Program at HCMC. " After this infection,

regardless of how slim or overweight you were before the infection,

you are likely to have more trouble being overweight after the

infection than before. " And with one in three obese adults

contracting AD-36 at some point in the lives, the virus should be

taken seriously. " I think it's pretty clear that it contributes

something to the epidemic of obesity, " he said.

Others are more skeptical and worry that portraying obesity as

something you " catch " could obscure the biggest driver of obesity—

overeating. " These associations may give some clues but they detract

from the basic message that we all need to take more exercise and eat

a bit less, " said Tony Barnett, professor of medicine at the

University of Birmingham.

" I'm skeptical because this theory has been around for 10 years and

no one has come up with a comparable study to back this up, " said Dr.

Tam Fry, chair of the Child Growth Foundation. " Concern over the

obesity epidemic seems to be throwing up a whole load of off-the-wall

ideas but the message remains the same, that sensible eating and

exercise are the major components to get your weight under control. "

Dr. Louis Aronne, a New York obesity expert and researcher, says that

while the study suggests a way the virus can do its dirty work,

it " doesn't do anything for the treatment of obesity. If you've had

this you could do a blood test to diagnose it, but it doesn't help us

in treating the problem. " He thinks it's " more what people eat and

kind of their work ethics and hitting the gym. "

" It's very important to know that it's not the reason why we're

seeing a major epidemic of obesity, " said Dr. Carel Le Roux, an

obesity expert at Imperial College who has been carrying out

experiments to see if he can make thin people fat. " It may be a small

contributing factor and we need to explore all the avenues because so

many people need help and we're just not clever enough to help them

at the moment. "

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are more

than a billion overweight adults globally and one-third of them are

obese. Here in the U.S., the National Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (CDC) estimates that about one-third of American adults

are obese, as are 16 percent of children and adolescents aged 2 to

19. Obesity increases the risk of stroke, heart disease, type 2

diabetes and other illnesses.

By: Madeline Ellis

Published: Thursday, 29 January 2009

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If you've put on some extra weight lately for no apparent reason you

may be able to attribute the gain to a highly infectious virus known

as AD-36. With symptoms similar to the common cold—runny nose, sore

throat, swollen glands—the virus is passed from person-to-person

through coughs, sneezes, and dirty hands. First infecting the lungs,

it then whisks around to other parts of the body entering fat

cells. " When this virus goes to fat tissue it replicates, making more

copies of itself and in the process increases the number of new fat

cells, which may explain why the fat tissue expands and why people

get fat when they are infected with this virus, " explains Professor

Nikhil Dhurandhar of Pennington Biomedical Research Center in

Louisiana, who has researched this theory for more than a decade.

Dhurandhar and a colleague made the first connection between the

virus and obesity in 1997. Their study of 199 people, presented at an

annual Experimental Biology meeting, found that up to 15 percent of

them carried antibodies to the virus, which indicated that they were

once exposed to the virus itself. Prior to that, Dhurandhar had shown

that another type of adenovirus that affects birds could induce

obesity when injected into chickens.

His team has now documented more than 1,000 patients whose obesity

appears to be linked to infection with the AD-36 virus. His latest

study revealed that 33 percent of overweight adults have contracted

the virus at some point in their lives, while the same is true for

only 11 percent of lean adults. Even people of average weight tended

to be heavier if they had been infected with AD-36. The resultant

weight gain can last for three months, until the body has built up

resistance to the virus.

Some experts agree that viruses might play a role in some obesity

cases. " Adenovirus-36 has the ability to take stem cells and turn

them into fat cells, " said Dr. Guilford Hartley, the medical director

of the Hennepin Bariatric Program at HCMC. " After this infection,

regardless of how slim or overweight you were before the infection,

you are likely to have more trouble being overweight after the

infection than before. " And with one in three obese adults

contracting AD-36 at some point in the lives, the virus should be

taken seriously. " I think it's pretty clear that it contributes

something to the epidemic of obesity, " he said.

Others are more skeptical and worry that portraying obesity as

something you " catch " could obscure the biggest driver of obesity—

overeating. " These associations may give some clues but they detract

from the basic message that we all need to take more exercise and eat

a bit less, " said Tony Barnett, professor of medicine at the

University of Birmingham.

" I'm skeptical because this theory has been around for 10 years and

no one has come up with a comparable study to back this up, " said Dr.

Tam Fry, chair of the Child Growth Foundation. " Concern over the

obesity epidemic seems to be throwing up a whole load of off-the-wall

ideas but the message remains the same, that sensible eating and

exercise are the major components to get your weight under control. "

Dr. Louis Aronne, a New York obesity expert and researcher, says that

while the study suggests a way the virus can do its dirty work,

it " doesn't do anything for the treatment of obesity. If you've had

this you could do a blood test to diagnose it, but it doesn't help us

in treating the problem. " He thinks it's " more what people eat and

kind of their work ethics and hitting the gym. "

" It's very important to know that it's not the reason why we're

seeing a major epidemic of obesity, " said Dr. Carel Le Roux, an

obesity expert at Imperial College who has been carrying out

experiments to see if he can make thin people fat. " It may be a small

contributing factor and we need to explore all the avenues because so

many people need help and we're just not clever enough to help them

at the moment. "

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are more

than a billion overweight adults globally and one-third of them are

obese. Here in the U.S., the National Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (CDC) estimates that about one-third of American adults

are obese, as are 16 percent of children and adolescents aged 2 to

19. Obesity increases the risk of stroke, heart disease, type 2

diabetes and other illnesses.