Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0011849 (diabetes)
 277,896 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The zinc content in the pancreatic beta cell is among the highest of the body, but information about which proteins might handle zinc in the beta cell is unknown. In the present work RT-PCR was used to obtain clues about the developmental expression of genes encoding metal complexing proteins in the pancreatic islets of the normal Sprague-Dawley rat and the BB diabetes resistant (BBDR) rat. The BBDR rat possesses beta cells genetically identical to the BB diabetes prone (BBDP) rat which exhibits an autoimmune diabetes quite similar to type 1 diabetes in humans, but in contrast to the BBDP rat, the islets of the BBDR rat are amenable to study because they are not destroyed by immune attack. There was no difference in the expression of any of the genes studied between the two strains of rats. mRNAs encoding zinc transport proteins ZnT-1 and ZnT-4, as well as calreticulin, ferritin heavy and light chains, metallothionein 1, metallothionein 3, Nramp1, Nramp2, transferrin, and the transferrin receptor were readily detected in pancreatic islets of 10-day-old, 5-week-old, and adult (60 to 90-day-old) rats. In contrast to the islet, mRNAs encoding metallothionein 3, Nramp1, Nramp2, ZnT-2, ZnT-3, and ZnT-4 and transferrin were not detected in the whole pancreas of adult Sprague-Dawley rats. In the whole pancreas of 3-day-old rats, ZnT-1 was the only zinc transporter mRNA detected and its level was moderate. Moderate to high levels of mRNA encoding calreticulin and the light and heavy chains of ferritin, as well as transferrin and the transferrin receptor, were detected in whole pancreas at 3 days. ZnT-2 and ZnT-3 mRNAs were present in low to moderate levels in pancreatic islets of 10-day and 5-week-old rats, but were absent in 3-day-old pancreas and islets of adult animals. These results indicate that expression of these proteins is developmentally regulated in the islet. In both Sprague-Dawley and BB rats, high levels of mRNAs encoding known beta cell proteins as controls (cytochrome b558, quinone reductase, the tricarboxylic acid transport protein and the receptors for IGF-1 and IGF-2 and insulin) were present in islets from 10 days to adulthood. Levels of mRNAs encoding quinone reductase, the tricarboxylic acid transport protein cytochrome b558 and the receptors for IGF-2 and insulin, were low or absent in 3-day-old and adult pancreas. BB rats were studied in an attempt to discern a difference between normal rats and the BB strain of rats, because, perhaps, delayed expression of a beta cell protein results in failure of immune tolerance against the beta cell. According to this paradigm none of the proteins examined in the current study appear to be a candidate for initiating an immune response in the BB rat.
Diabetes Res Clin Pract 2000 Aug
PMID:Survey of mRNAs encoding zinc transporters and other metal complexing proteins in pancreatic islets of rats from birth to adulthood: similar patterns in the Sprague-Dawley and Wistar BB strains. 1096 17

SLC30A8, a novel member of the zinc transporter (ZnT) family, was identified by searching the human genomic and expressed sequence tag (EST) databases with the amino acid sequence of all known human ZnT. The protein (369 amino acids) predicted from this gene, ZnT-8, contains six transmembrane domains and a histidine-rich loop between transmembrane domains IV and V, like the other ZnT proteins. We demonstrated by RT-PCR on cDNA libraries and human tissue extracts that the ZnT-8 gene is solely transcribed in the pancreas, mainly in the islets of Langerhans. The gene, named SLC30A8, was cloned and sequenced. Confocal immunofluorescence analysis revealed that a ZnT-8-EGFP (enhanced green fluorescent protein) fusion product colocalized with insulin in the secretory pathway granules of the insulin-secreting INS-1 cells. Exposure of the ZnT-8-EGFP stably expressing HeLa cells to 75 micromol/l zinc caused an accumulation of zinc in intracellular vesicles compared with cells expressing EGFP alone. These results identified ZnT-8 as a ZnT specific to the pancreas and expressed in beta-cells. Because ZnT-8 facilitates the accumulation of zinc from the cytoplasm into intracellular vesicles, ZnT-8 may be a major component for providing zinc to insulin maturation and/or storage processes in insulin-secreting pancreatic beta-cells.
Diabetes 2004 Sep
PMID:Identification and cloning of a beta-cell-specific zinc transporter, ZnT-8, localized into insulin secretory granules. 1533 42

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) results from progressive loss of pancreatic islet mass through autoimmunity targeted at a diverse, yet limited, series of molecules that are expressed in the pancreatic beta cell. Identification of these molecular targets provides insight into the pathogenic process, diagnostic assays, and potential therapeutic agents. Autoantigen candidates were identified from microarray expression profiling of human and rodent pancreas and islet cells and screened with radioimmunoprecipitation assays using new-onset T1D and prediabetic sera. A high-ranking candidate, the zinc transporter ZnT8 (Slc30A8), was targeted by autoantibodies in 60-80% of new-onset T1D compared with <2% of controls and <3% type 2 diabetic and in up to 30% of patients with other autoimmune disorders with a T1D association. ZnT8 antibodies (ZnTA) were found in 26% of T1D subjects classified as autoantibody-negative on the basis of existing markers [glutamate decarboxylase (GADA), protein tyrosine phosphatase IA2 (IA2A), antibodies to insulin (IAA), and islet cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ICA)]. Individuals followed from birth to T1D showed ZnT8A as early as 2 years of age and increasing levels and prevalence persisting to disease onset. ZnT8A generally emerged later than GADA and IAA in prediabetes, although not in a strict order. The combined measurement of ZnT8A, GADA, IA2A, and IAA raised autoimmunity detection rates to 98% at disease onset, a level that approaches that needed to detect prediabetes in a general pediatric population. The combination of bioinformatics and molecular engineering used here will potentially generate other diabetes autoimmunity markers and is also broadly applicable to other autoimmune disorders.
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PMID:The cation efflux transporter ZnT8 (Slc30A8) is a major autoantigen in human type 1 diabetes. 1794 84

Diabetes is a disorder characterized by beta-cell loss or exhaustion and insulin deficiency. At present, knowledge is lacking on the underlying causes and for the therapeutic recovery of the beta-cell mass. A better understanding of diabetes pathogenesis could be obtained through exact monitoring of the fate of beta-cells under disease and therapy conditions. This could pave the way for a new era of intervention by islet replacement and regeneration regimens. Monitoring the beta-cell mass requires a reliable method for noninvasive in vivo imaging. Such a method is not available at present due to the lack of a beta-cell-specific contrast agent. The only existing method to monitor islet cells in vivo consists of labeling islet transplants with iron nanoparticles prior to transplantation and visualization of the transplanted islets by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Therefore, accurate assessment of the native beta-cell mass is still limited to autopsy studies. Endeavors to find a biological structure specific for beta-cells led to the discovery of potential candidates that have been tested for noninvasive imaging. Among them are the ligand to the vesicular monoamine transporter type 2 (VMAT-2), which is called dihydrotetrabenazine (DTBZ), antibodies to zinc transporter (ZnT-8) and the monoclonal antibody IC2. While DTBZ and antibodies to ZnT-8 showed binding activities to more than beta-cells, the anti-IC2 monoclonal antibody showed binding properties exclusively to insulin-producing beta-cells. This effect was demonstrated in many previous investigations, and has been further substantiated more recently. Thus, at present, IC2 seems to be the only useful marker for noninvasive functional imaging of native beta-cells. Experiments with a radioisotope-chelated IC2 structure on pancreas ex vivo showed that the tracer specifically bound to the beta-cell surface and could be detected by nuclear imaging. In the near future, these promising findings may offer a new way to monitor the beta-cell mass in vivo under disease and therapy conditions so that we can learn more about diabetes pathogenesis and options for disease prevention.
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PMID:Imaging the Beta-cell mass: why and how. 1854 65

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is perceived as a chronic immune-mediated disease with a subclinical prodromal period characterized by selective loss of insulin-producing beta-cells in the pancreatic islets in genetically susceptible subjects. Autoreactive T cells, both CD4 and CD8 cells, have been implicated as active players in beta-cell destruction. A series of autoantigens have been identified in T1D including insulin, glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD), the protein tyrosine phosphatase-related islet antigen 2 (IA-2), and most recently the zinc transporter Slc30A8 residing in the insulin secretory granule of the beta-cell. The issue whether there is any primary autoantigen in T1D has remained controversial. Given that there are two major HLA haplotypes conferring disease susceptibility, i.e. the DR3-DQ2 haplotype and the DR4-DQ8 haplotype, one may assume that there will be at least two primary antigens in T1D. The first signs of beta-cell autoimmunity might appear already during the first year of life. Autoantibodies may be considered as markers of an ongoing disease process in the pancreatic islets, and they can be used for prediction of T1D in non-diabetic individuals. Autoantigen-specific T-cell responses have been detected from peripheral blood in both patients with T1D and in unaffected subjects, but a clear discrimination between diabetic and non-diabetic subjects have rarely been seen until recently.
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PMID:Autoimmune mechanisms in type 1 diabetes. 1862 44

Mechanisms through which gene expression is regulated by zinc are central to cellular zinc homoeostasis. In this context, evidence for the involvement of zinc dyshomoeostasis in the aetiology of diseases, including Type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and cancer, highlights the importance of zinc-regulated gene expression. Mechanisms elucidated in bacteria and yeast provide examples of different possible modes of zinc-sensitive gene regulation, involving the zinc-regulated binding of transcriptional activators and repressors to gene promoter regions. A mammalian transcriptional regulatory mechanism that mediates zinc-induced transcriptional up-regulation, involving the transcription factor MTF1 (metal-response element-binding transcription factor 1), has been studied extensively. Gene responses in the opposite direction (reduced mRNA levels in response to increased zinc availability) have been observed in mammalian cells, but a specific transcriptional regulatory process responsible for such a response has yet to be identified. Examples of single zinc-sensitive transcription factors regulating gene expression in opposite directions are emerging. Although zinc-induced transcriptional repression by MTF1 is a possible explanation in some specific instances, such a mechanism cannot account for repression by zinc of all mammalian genes that show this mode of regulation, indicating the existence of as yet uncharacterized mechanisms of zinc-regulated transcription in mammalian cells. In addition, recent findings reveal a role for effects of zinc on mRNA stability in the regulation of specific zinc transporters. Our studies on the regulation of the human gene SLC30A5 (solute carrier 30A5), which codes for the zinc transporter ZnT5, have revealed that this gene provides a model system by which to study both zinc-induced transcriptional down-regulation and zinc-regulated mRNA stabilization.
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PMID:Mechanisms of mammalian zinc-regulated gene expression. 1902 37

Clinical type 1 diabetes is preceded by autoimmune destruction of the pancreatic beta-cells. However, progression to disease is not uniform. One challenge facing current diabetes research is therefore to identify biomarker profiles that accurately reflect the individual stage of type 1 diabetes pathogenesis and develop new techniques to distinguish between these profiles and associated diabetes risks. This report highlights some of the recent studies on diabetes biomarkers, with a particular focus on zinc transporter ZnT8, presented at the EASD meeting in September 2008 in Rome, Italy.
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PMID:Tracing the Pathogenesis of Type 1 Diabetes: A Report on the 44th Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD). 1909 89

The human zinc transporter Slc30A8 (ZnT8) is a major target of humoral autoimmunity in human type 1A diabetes. However, despite extensive conservation, the majority of human autoimmune sera fail to recognize the murine ortholog. Moreover, Slc30A8 appears not to be a significant target of humoral autoimmunity in the NOD mouse. We therefore "humanized" the murine protein by site-directed mutagenesis. Only conversion of Q324 to arginine (equivalent to R325 in the human protein) partially restored reactivity to a pool of sera selected for high titers to the human probe. Additionally, the reciprocal mutation (human R325 to Q) abolished reactivity for 38/103 (36.9%) of ZnT8(+) sera. We conclude that the C-terminal domain of human ZnT8 contains at least two discrete epitopes, one of which is critically dependent upon the arginine residue at position 325.
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PMID:Identification of a major humoral epitope in Slc30A8 (ZnT8). 1912 Mar 6

Zinc is an essential trace element crucial for the function of more than 300 enzymes and it is important for cellular processes like cell division and apoptosis. Hence, the concentration of zinc in the human body is tightly regulated and disturbances of zinc homeostasis have been associated with several diseases including diabetes mellitus, a disease characterized by high blood glucose concentrations as a consequence of decreased secretion or action of insulin. Zinc supplementation of animals and humans has been shown to ameliorate glycemic control in type 1 and 2 diabetes, the two major forms of diabetes mellitus, but the underlying molecular mechanisms have only slowly been elucidated. Zinc seems to exert insulin-like effects by supporting the signal transduction of insulin and by reducing the production of cytokines, which lead to beta-cell death during the inflammatory process in the pancreas in the course of the disease. Furthermore, zinc might play a role in the development of diabetes, since genetic polymorphisms in the gene of zinc transporter 8 and in metallothionein (MT)-encoding genes could be demonstrated to be associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The fact that antibodies against this zinc transporter have been detected in type 1 diabetic patients offers new diagnostic possibilities. This article reviews the influence of zinc on the diabetic state including the molecular mechanisms, the role of the zinc transporter 8 and MT for diabetes development and the resulting diagnostic and therapeutic options.
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PMID:Zinc and diabetes--clinical links and molecular mechanisms. 1944 98

Zinc co-crystallizes with insulin in dense core secretory granules, but its role in insulin biosynthesis, storage and secretion is unknown. In this study we assessed the role of the zinc transporter ZnT8 using ZnT8-knockout (ZnT8(-/-)) mice. Absence of ZnT8 expression caused loss of zinc release upon stimulation of exocytosis, but normal rates of insulin biosynthesis, normal insulin content and preserved glucose-induced insulin release. Ultrastructurally, mature dense core insulin granules were rare in ZnT8(-/-) beta cells and were replaced by immature, pale insulin "progranules," which were larger than in ZnT8(+/+) islets. When mice were fed a control diet, glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity were normal. However, after high-fat diet feeding, the ZnT8(-/-) mice became glucose intolerant or diabetic, and islets became less responsive to glucose. Our data show that the ZnT8 transporter is essential for the formation of insulin crystals in beta cells, contributing to the packaging efficiency of stored insulin. Interaction between the ZnT8(-/-) genotype and diet to induce diabetes is a model for further studies of the mechanism of disease of human ZNT8 gene mutations.
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PMID:Insulin crystallization depends on zinc transporter ZnT8 expression, but is not required for normal glucose homeostasis in mice. 1970 65


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