Researchers Discover a Novel Modulator of Lipid and Energy Metabolism

Lipid is essential for human health, and has been linked to cardiovascular diseases and type II diabetes. A new study conducted by Dr. SONG Bao-Liang’s and LI Bo-Liang’s groups from Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered an E3 ubiquitin ligase regulating lipid and energy metabolism.

 

HMG-CoA reductase (HMGCR) is a rate-limiting enzyme in cholesterol biosynthetic pathway. On the other hand, Insig-1/-2 are negative regulates of lipid biosynthesis by inhibiting the SREBP pathway. gp78 is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that modulate lipid homeostasis by catalyzing the ubiquitination of HMGCR or Insig-1/-2. Through a close scrutiny of gp78 liver-specific knockout mice, the researchers found that the hepatic lipogenesis was decreased and energy expenditure was increased due to suppression of SREBP. The gp78-deficient mice were resistant to diet-/age-induced obesity and glucose intolerence. Together, these results indicate that gp78 is a promising target for developing treatments against metabolic diseases.

 

This study has been published online on Cell Metabolism (doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2012.06.014) with LIU Tong-Fei as the first author. The research was funded by the Ministry of Sciences and Technology of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China and Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality.

 

AUTHOR CONTACT:

Dr. SONG Bao-Liang

Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

Email: blsong@sibs.ac.cn, Tel/Fax: +86-21-54921649

 

Figure Ablation of hepatic gp78 ameliorates obesity and insulin resistance due to decreased lipogenesis and activated brown adipocytes. (Image provided by Dr. SONG Bao-Liang)