New insights into how adenovirus might lead to obesity: An oxidative stress theory

Abstract

Obesity has become a worldwide epidemic that leads to many serious weight-related disorders. Recently, infection by viruses has been proposed as a possible cause of the obesity epidemic. Of the many viruses screened, adenovirus 36 has been found to be a strong candidate virus that is associated with obesity, based on evidence in various model systems as well as clinical data. The mechanism of how the adenovirus could lead to obesity is not known and this paper proposes some new insights into how oxidative stress could be a possible mechanism of how adenovirus might lead to obesity. This paper reviews the relevant literature of both the effect of adenovirus on cells' anti-oxidant response and the link between obesity and oxidative stress.

Keywords::

• Adenovirus 36
• oxidation
• metabolic syndrome
• anti-oxidant
• infection

This paper was first published online on Early Online on 26 May 2011.