Human adenovirus 36 (HAdV-36) or Ad-36 or Adv36 is one of 52 types of

adenovirus Adenoviruses (members of the family ''Adenoviridae'') are medium-sized (90–100 nm), nonenveloped (without an outer lipid bilayer) viruses with an icosahedral nucleocapsid containing a double-stranded DNA genome. Their name derives from the ...

es known to infect

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

s. AD-36, first isolated in 1978 from the feces of a girl suffering from diabetes and enteritis, has long been recognized as a cause of respiratory and eye infections in humans. It was first shown to be associated with

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's we ...

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

s by Dr.

Nikhil Dhurandhar Nikhil V. Dhurandhar is a university professor who has published details about the proposed adipogenic effect of the human adenovirus AD-36 on laboratory animals and also its association with human obesity. He trained as a homeopath in India, stu ...

. AD-36 infection can induce

cellular differentiation Cellular differentiation is the process in which a stem cell alters from one type to a differentiated one. Usually, the cell changes to a more specialized type. Differentiation happens multiple times during the development of a multicellular ...

of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type o ...

s derived from human

adipose tissue Adipose tissue, body fat, or simply fat is a loose connective tissue composed mostly of adipocytes. In addition to adipocytes, adipose tissue contains the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) of cells including preadipocytes, fibroblasts, vascular e ...

Role in obesity

There has been a positive correlation between body fat and the presence of AD-36

antibodies An antibody (Ab), also known as an immunoglobulin (Ig), is a large, Y-shaped protein used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as pathogenic bacteria and viruses. The antibody recognizes a unique molecule of the ...

in the blood. Previous research showed that chickens or mice injected with similar types of viruses show a statistically significant weight gain. To date, AD-36 is the only human adenovirus that has been linked with human obesity, present in 30% of obese humans and 11% of nonobese humans. In addition, a study of obese Americans indicates that about 30% of the obese individuals and only 5% of non-obese individuals have antibodies to Ad-36. Another study determined that children with the virus averaged 52 pounds heavier than those with no signs of it and obese children with the virus averaged 35 pounds heavier than obese children with no trace of the virus. AD-36 also causes obesity in chickens, mice, rats, and monkeys.

Public awareness

On March 18, 2006, the research of Richard Atkinson (University of Wisconsin) was posted on some websites. In those studies, blood tests conducted on over 2000 Australians showed that more than 20% of the study participants had contracted Ad-36 viral infection. On January 26, 2009, many popular internet news portals ran reports of the pending release of scientific research by Professor Nikhil Dhurandhar (Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana) implicating AD-36 as a potential cause for Britain's relatively high rate of adult obesity."Obesity Bug You Can Catch"
''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

'', 26 January 2009
"Obesity Caught Like Common Cold"
''

LiveScience Live Science is a science news website run by Future via Purch, which it purchased from Imaginova in 2009. Stories and editorial commentary are typically syndicated to major news outlets, such as Yahoo!, MSNBC, AOL, and Fox News.{{fact, date=Mar ...

'', 26 January 2009

References

External links

"The Fat Virus: Could Obesity Be Contagious?"
at

WebMD WebMD is an American corporation known primarily as an online publisher of news and information pertaining to human health and well-being. The site includes information pertaining to drugs. It is one of the top healthcare websites. It was foun ...

"Can a virus make you fat?"
at

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

"Fat Plague - Documentary"
at 4oD
"Contagious obesity? Identifying the human adenoviruses that may make us fat"
at

Science Blog Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

"Common virus may contribute to obesity in some people, new study shows"
at

Biology News Net Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary in ...

"Fat Virus, Ad-36 Blamed For Obesity Epidemic In Australians"
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Medindia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adenovirus Serotype 36 Adenoviridae Medical conditions related to obesity

Role in obesity

Public awareness

See also

References

External links