[2017 Spring Life Sciences & IBB Seminar]

▶Subject: Autophagy insufficiency is a cause of metabolic syndrome and diabetes-Potential role of autophagy enhancer as a therapeutic agent

▶Speaker: Prof. Myung-Shik Lee (Severance Biomedical Science Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine)

▶Date: 4:30PM/Mar. 31(Fri.)/2017

▶Place: Auditorium(1F), Postech Biotech Center

▶Abctract
Autophagy, which is critical for the proper function of organelles such as ER, mitochondria and lysosome affects diverse aspects of cellular and whole body metabolism. To study the role of global autophagy insufficiency, particularly that of physiological level, rather than complete autophagy knockout in localized tissues, on the whole body metabolism, we generated mice with global Atg7 haploinsufficiency (Atg7+/- mice). Atg7+/- mice did not show metabolic abnormalities, but developed diabetes when crossed with ob/ob mice, together with aggravated insulin resistance. Augmented inflammasome activation associated with mitochondrial dysfunction was the culprit leading to enhanced metainflammation and diabetes. Since these results suggested that global autophagy insufficiency is a factor in the progression from obesity to diabetes, we next studied whether autophagy enhancers could improve metabolic profile of obese mice. We screened chemical library using a luciferase-based high throughput kinetic assay of autophagic flux. We found some chemicals with autophagy enhancing activity without mTOR inhibition. Autophagy enhancers improved inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction and metabolic profile of obese mice. These results suggest that autophagy is important for the control of inflammasome activation associated with metabolic stress, and autophagy enhancers could be a novel class of therapeutic agents against diabetes and metabolic syndrome associated with lipid overload.
Key Words: autophagy, inflammasome, mitochondria, metabolic syndrome, diabetes

▶Inquiry: Prof. Cheol-Sang Hwang (279-2352)

* This seminar will be given in English.
Please refrain from taking photos during seminars. *