A causal role for hyperinsulinemia in obesity

The Drosophila melanogaster gene chico encodes an insulin receptor substrate that functions in an insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling pathway. In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, insulin/IGF signaling regulates adult longevity. We found that mutation of chico extends fruit fly median life-span by up to 48% in homozygotes and 36% in heterozygotes. Extension of life-span was not a result of impaired oogenesis in chico females, nor was it consistently correlated with increased stress resistance. The dwarf phenotype of chico homozygotes was also unnecessary for extension of life-span. The role of insulin/IGF signaling in regulating animal aging is therefore evolutionarily conserved.

Most animals alternate periods of feeding with periods of fasting often coinciding with sleep. Upon >24 hr of fasting, humans, rodents, and other mammals enter alternative metabolic phases, which rely less on glucose and more on ketone body-like carbon sources. Both intermittent and periodic fasting result in benefits ranging from the prevention to the enhanced treatment of diseases. Similarly, time-restricted feeding (TRF), in which food consumption is restricted to certain hours of the day, allows the daily fasting period to last >12 hr, thus imparting pleiotropic benefits. Understanding the mechanistic link between nutrients and the fasting benefits is leading to the identification of fasting-mimicking diets (FMDs) that achieve changes similar to those caused by fasting. Given the pleiotropic and sustained benefits of TRF and FMDs, both basic science and translational research are warranted to develop fasting-associated interventions into feasible, effective, and inexpensive treatments with the potential to improve healthspan.

Central and peripheral insulin-like peptides (ILPs), which include insulin, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) and IGF2, exert many effects in the brain. Through their actions on brain growth and differentiation, ILPs contribute to building circuitries that subserve metabolic and behavioural adaptation to internal and external cues of energy availability. In the adult brain each ILP has distinct effects, but together their actions ultimately regulate energy homeostasis - they affect nutrient sensing and regulate neuronal plasticity to modulate adaptive behaviours involved in food seeking, including high-level cognitive operations such as spatial memory. In essence, the multifaceted activity of ILPs in the brain may be viewed as a system organization involved in the control of energy allocation.