Five insights from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 provides a rules-based synthesis of the available evidence on levels and trends in health outcomes, a diverse set of risk factors, and health system responses. GBD 2019 covered 204 countries and territories, as well as first administrative level disaggregations for 22 countries, from 1990 to 2019. Because GBD is highly standardised and comprehensive, spanning both fatal and non-fatal outcomes, and uses a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of hierarchical disease and injury causes, the study provides a powerful basis for detailed and broad insights on global health trends and emerging challenges. GBD 2019 incorporates data from 281 586 sources and provides more than 3.5 billion estimates of health outcome and health system measures of interest for global, national, and subnational policy dialogue. All GBD estimates are publicly available and adhere to the Guidelines on Accurate and Transparent Health Estimate Reporting. From this vast amount of information, five key insights that are important for health, social, and economic development strategies have been distilled. These insights are subject to the many limitations outlined in each of the component GBD capstone papers.Peer reviewe

Metabolomic analysis shows differential hepatic effects of T-2 and T-3 in rats after short-term feeding with high fat diet

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a major health problem worldwide, and is often associated with lipotoxic injury, defective mitochondrial function, and insulin resistance. Thyroid hormones (THs) are important regulators of hepatic lipid metabolism. Among the THs, diiodothyronine (T2) and triiodothyronine (T3) have shown promising results in lowering hepatic fat content in various models of NAFLD. In this study, we used a targeted metabolomics approach to investigate the differential effects of T2 and T3 on the early metabolic adaptation in the livers of rats fed high fat diet (HFD), a period when hepatosteatosis is reversible. Our results showed that both T2 and T3 strongly induced autophagy and intra-hepatic acylcarnitine flux but prevented the generation of sphingolipid/ceramides in animals fed HFD. Interestingly, although both T2 and T3 decreased hepatic fat content, only T2 was able to rescue the impairment in AKT and MAPK/ERK pathways caused by HFD. In summary, we have identified and characterized the effects of T2 and T3 on hepatic metabolism during short-term exposure to HFD. These findings illuminate the common and divergent metabolic pathways by T2 and T3 that also may be important in the prevention and treatment of NAFLD.Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a major health problem worldwide, and is often associated with lipotoxic injury, defective mitochondrial function, and insulin resistance. Thyroid hormones (THs) are important regulators of hepatic lipid metabolism. Among the THs, diiodothyronine (T-2) and triiodothyronine (T-3) have shown promising results in lowering hepatic fat content in various models of NAFLD. In this study, we used a targeted metabolomics approach to investigate the differential effects of T-2 and T-3 on the early metabolic adaptation in the livers of rats fed high fat diet (HFD), a period when hepatosteatosis is reversible. Our results showed that both T-2 and T-3 strongly induced autophagy and intra-hepatic acylcarnitine flux but prevented the generation of sphingolipid/ceramides in animals fed HFD. Interestingly, although both T-2 and T-3 decreased hepatic fat content, only T-2 was able to rescue the impairment in AKT and MAPK/ERK pathways caused by HFD. In summary, we have identified and characterized the effects of T-2 and T-3 on hepatic metabolism during short-term exposure to HFD. These findings illuminate the common and divergent metabolic pathways by T-2 and T-3 that also may be important in the prevention and treatment of NAFLD

Loss of Drosophila pseudouridine synthase triggers apoptosis-induced proliferation and promotes cell-nonautonomous EMT

Many developing tissues display regenerative capability that allows them to compensate cell loss and preserve tissue homeostasis. Because of their remarkable regenerative capability, Drosophila wing discs are extensively used for the study of regenerative phenomena. We thus used the developing wing to investigate the role played in tissue homeostasis by the evolutionarily conserved eukaryotic H/ACA small nucleolar ribonucleoprotein pseudouridine synthase. Here we show that localized depletion of this enzyme can act as an endogenous stimulus capable of triggering apoptosis-induced proliferation, and that context-dependent effects are elicited in different sub-populations of the silenced cells. In fact, some cells undergo apoptosis, whereas those surrounding the apoptotic foci, although identically depleted, overproliferate. This overproliferation correlates with ectopic induction of the Wg and JAK-STAT (Janus kinase-signal transducer and activator of transcription) mitogenic pathways. Expression of a p35 transgene, which blocks the complete execution of the death program and generates the so-called 'undead cells', amplifies the proliferative response. Pseudouridine synthase depletion also causes loss of apicobasal polarity, disruption of adherens cell junctions and ectopic induction of JNK (c-Jun N-terminal kinase) and Mmp1 (matrix metalloproteinase-1) activity, leading to a significant epithelial reorganization. Unexpectedly, cell-nonautonomous effects, such as epithelial mesenchymal transition in the contiguous unsilenced squamous epithelium, are also promoted. Collectively, these data point out that cell-cell communication and long-range signaling can take a relevant role in the response to pseudouridine synthase decline. Considering that all the affected pathways are highly conserved throughout evolution, it is plausible that the response to pseudouridine synthase depletion has been widely preserved. On this account, our results can add new light on the still unexplained tumor predisposition that characterizes X-linked dyskeratosis, the human disease caused by reduced pseudouridine synthase activity

Five insights from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 provides a rules-based synthesis of the available evidence on levels and trends in health outcomes, a diverse set of risk factors, and health system responses. GBD 2019 covered 204 countries and territories, as well as first administrative level disaggregations for 22 countries, from 1990 to 2019. Because GBD is highly standardised and comprehensive, spanning both fatal and non-fatal outcomes, and uses a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of hierarchical disease and injury causes, the study provides a powerful basis for detailed and broad insights on global health trends and emerging challenges. GBD 2019 incorporates data from 281 586 sources and provides more than 3·5 billion estimates of health outcome and health system measures of interest for global, national, and subnational policy dialogue. All GBD estimates are publicly available and adhere to the Guidelines on Accurate and Transparent Health Estimate Reporting. From this vast amount of information, five key insights that are important for health, social, and economic development strategies have been distilled. These insights are subject to the many limitations outlined in each of the component GBD capstone papers