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Evolutionary Aspects of Metabolic Diseases

Edited by:
Dimitar Avtanski, PhD, The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, United States of America

Submission Status: Closed   |   Submission Deadline: 12 December 2024

This collection is no longer accepting submissions.

Molecular Medicine is calling for submissions to our Collection on Evolutionary Aspects of Metabolic Diseases. This Collection welcomes research and review articles exploring the evolutionary origin of metabolic diseases, considering factors such as dietary shifts, physical activity patterns, and genetic adaptations.


New Content ItemThis collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being

  1. Hydroxy-alpha-sanshool (HAS) has attracted attention because of its various biological activities, such as hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, and antioxidant activities. In this study, we investigated the effects of...

    Authors: Yuping Zhu, Pan Yang, Tingyuan Ren, Zhuqi Chen, Huanhuan Tian, Mingfen Wang and Chunlin Zhang
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2025 31:76
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. Abnormal glucose metabolism inevitably disrupts normal neuronal function, a phenomenon widely observed in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Investigating the mechanisms of metabolic adaptation during disease progressi...

    Authors: Xiangyuan Meng, Hui Zhang, Zhenhu Zhao, Siyao li, Xin Zhang, Ruihan Guo, Huimin Liu, Yiling Yuan, Wanrui Li, Qi Song and Jinyu Liu
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2025 31:61
    Content type: Review Published on:

  3. Hepatocyte nuclear factor 6 (HNF6), a member of the HNF family, contains single cleft and homologous domains, which form a DNA-binding region that targets the promoter regions of genes that bind to liver-speci...

    Authors: Miaomiao Tian, Weizhen Gao, Shujun Ma, Huiling Cao, Yu Zhang, Fuxiang An, Jianni Qi and Zhen Yang
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2025 31:48
    Content type: Review Published on:

  5. The incidence of obesity is increasing annually worldwide. A high-fat diet (HFD) causes intestinal barrier damage, but effective interventions are currently unavailable. Our previous work demonstrated the ther...

    Authors: Ni Yang, Yue-Shan Pang, Yali Zheng, Yan-Ju Gong and Wei-Jun Ding
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2025 31:26
    Content type: Research Published on:

  6. Neuropathic pain (NP) is a debilitating condition caused by lesion or dysfunction in the somatosensory nervous system. Accumulation of advanced oxidation protein products (AOPPs) is implicated in mechanical hy...

    Authors: Chen Tu, Shi-Cheng Wang, Meng-Xuan Dai, Si-Qi Lai, Zhi-Wei Huang, Yong-Peng Yu, Yun-Biao Chen, Ji-Huan Zeng, Liang Wang and Zhao-Ming Zhong
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2025 31:25
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. Obesity is a significant risk factor for severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) and is typically associated with increased intestinal permeability. Understanding the role of specific molecules can help reduce the ris...

    Authors: Lihui Lin, Yansong Lin, Xianwen Guo, Ruoyi Zhang, Xin Ling, Zewen Zhang, Rong Lin and Zhen Ding
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2025 31:24
    Content type: Research Published on:

  8. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is an indicator and diverse endocrine syndrome that combines different metabolic defects with clinical, physiological, biochemical, and metabolic factors. Obesity, visceral adiposity ...

    Authors: Md. Sharifull Islam, Ping Wei, Md Suzauddula, Ishatur Nime, Farahnaaz Feroz, Mrityunjoy Acharjee and Fan Pan
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:279
    Content type: Review Published on:

  9. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) are both the chronic inflammatory disease. To investigate the influence of secondary atherosclerosis on arthritis mice, we treated the ApoE−/− mice with ...

    Authors: Na Shi, Shan Jiang, Yue Zhao, Yang Zhang, Xinwang Duan, Guo-bao Hong, Zhongshan Yang, Yuanyuan Duan and Haitao Niu
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:270
    Content type: Research Published on:

  10. Diabetes is a multi-factorial disorder and related complications constitute one of the principal causes of global mortality and disability. The role of ferroptosis in diabetes and its complications is intricat...

    Authors: Changqing Dong, Wuda Huoshen, Yunfeng Bai, Jiaona Liu, Bing Li, Yucan Guan and Ping Luo
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:268
    Content type: Research Published on:

  11. Periprosthetic osteolysis and subsequent aseptic loosening are the leading causes of failure following total joint arthroplasty. Osteogenic impairment induced by wear particles is regarded as a crucial contrib...

    Authors: Xin Yu, Juan Jiang, Cheng Li, Yang Wang, Zhengrong Ren, Jianlun Hu, Tao Yuan, Yongjie Wu, Dongsheng Wang, Ziying Sun, Qi Wu, Bin Chen, Peng Fang, Hao Ding, Jia Meng, Hui Jiang…
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:266
    Content type: Research Published on:

  13. Pancreatic diseases pose considerable health challenges due to their complex etiology and limited therapeutic options. Mitochondrial uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2), highly expressed in pancreatic tissue, particip...

    Authors: Kunpeng Wang, Lilong Zhang, Beiying Deng, Kailiang Zhao, Chen Chen and Weixing Wang
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:259
    Content type: Mini Review Published on:

  14. Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) has been associated with several fetal complications, such as macrosomia and fetal growth restriction (FGR). Infants from GDM associated FGR are at increased risk for adult-...

    Authors: Qin Zhang, Xi Yuan, Xiaojin Luan, Ting Lei, Yiran Li, Wei Chu, Qi Yao, Philip N. Baker, Hongbo Qi and Hui Li
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:257
    Content type: Research Published on:

  15. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is one of the most common cardiovascular diseases with no effective treatment due to its complex pathogenesis. A novel cell death, disulfidptosis, has been extensively studied...

    Authors: Huimin Fan, Xin Tan, Shuai Xu, Yiyao Zeng, Hailong Zhang, Tong Shao, Runze Zhao, Peng Zhou, Xiaohong Bo, Jili Fan, Yangjun Fu, Xulong Ding and Yafeng Zhou
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:249
    Content type: Research Published on:

  16. Evidence has shown that oxidative stress induced by high glucose microenvironment in placenta of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is indispensable to the progression of this condition. Adipokine chemerin wa...

    Authors: Xuan Zhou, Yi Jiang, Zizhuo Wang, Lijie Wei, Huiting Zhang, Chenyun Fang, Shenglan Zhu, Yuanyuan Du, Rui Su, Weikun Li, Zhenzhen He, Liangnan Zhang, Weidong Tan, Mengzhou He, Jun Yu, Shaoshuai Wang…
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:239
    Content type: Research Published on:

  17. Hypertension is a leading risk factor for disability and deaths worldwide. Evidence indicates that alpha-mangostin(α-MG) can reduce blood pressure and improve target organ damage. Nonetheless, its pharmacologi...

    Authors: Qi-Qi Xue, Chu-Hao Liu and Yan Li
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:234
    Content type: Research Published on:

  18. Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a progressive and difficult-to-heal lung disease that poses a significant threat to human life and health. This study aimed to investigate the potential pathological mechanisms of PF...

    Authors: Juan Wang, Zhenkun Xia, Bei Qing, Ying Chen, Linguo Gu, Hongzuo Chen, Zhenglian Ge and Yunchang Yuan
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:228
    Content type: Research Published on:

  19. In clinical practice, alterations in the internal environment of type 2 diabetes can significantly affect bone quality. While the increased risk of fractures among diabetic patients is well-established, the pr...

    Authors: Bo Peng, Zhiwei Feng, Ao Yang, Jinmin Liu, Jinwen He, Lihu Xu, Cong Tian, Xiaoyun Sheng, Yaobin Wang, Rongjin Chen, Xingwen Wang, Xiaojun Ren, Bin Geng and Yayi Xia
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:226
    Content type: Research Published on:

  20. Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and urinary incontinence (UI) are common disorders that significantly impact women’s quality of life. Studies have demonstrated that cytokines, including pro- and anti-inflammatory ...

    Authors: Yongxiu Chen, Amin Ullah, Weifang Chen, Jianyan Xuan, Xiaowen Huang, Shiqi Liang, Bairong Shen and Tingfeng Wu
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:214
    Content type: Review Published on:

  21. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common type of lymphoma which possess highly aggressive and heterogeneous. Despite advances in understanding heterogeneity and development of novel targeted ag...

    Authors: Cancan Wang, Ran Zhang, Huan Zhang, Haixia Gao, Yubing Zhu, Lichao Jiao, Zhiqiang Yi, Meiyu Zhou and Xinxia Li
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:210
    Content type: Research Published on:

  22. Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) is currently considered a preferred preclinical model to evaluate drug sensitivity, explore drug resistance mechanisms, and select individualized treatment regimens.

    Authors: Xiaoqing Wang, Ju Zhu, Lingling Li, Qilin Zhao, Yutang Huang, Chunjie Wen, Dan Chen and Lanxiang Wu
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:209
    Content type: Research Published on:

  23. Apical papilla stem cells (SCAPs) exhibit significant potential for tissue repair, characterized by their anti-inflammatory and pro-angiogenic properties. Exosomes derived from stem cells have emerged as safer...

    Authors: Yifei Nie, Wenqing Meng, Duanqin Liu, Ziqing Yang, Wenhao Wang, Huiping Ren, Kai Mao, Weipeng Lan, Chuanhua Li, Zhifeng Wang and Jing Lan
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:186
    Content type: Research Published on:

  24. The aberrant acetylation of mitochondrial proteins is involved in the pathogenesis of multiple diseases including neurodegenerative diseases and cerebral ischemic injury. Previous studies have shown that deple...

    Authors: Jiejie Zhang, Shan Wang, Haitao Zhang, Xiaotong Yang, Xin Ren, Lei Wang, Yihan Yang, Yi Yang and Ya Wen
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:173
    Content type: Research Published on:

  26. Obesity is a global epidemic, and the low-grade chronic inflammation of adipose tissue in obese individuals can lead to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs) are the main so...

    Authors: Huaying Huang, Heye Chen, Yu Yao and Xueyong Lou
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:149
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  27. Epimedin A (EA) has been shown to suppress extensive osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption, but the effects of EA remain incompletely understood. The aim of our study was to investigate the effects of EA on o...

    Authors: Jun Li, Jia J. Wei, Cen H. Wu, Tao Zou, Hong Zhao, Tian Q. Huo, Cheng J. Wei and Ting Yang
    Citation: Molecular Medicine 2024 30:125
    Content type: Research article Published on:

About the collection

This Collection aims to examine metabolic diseases from an evolutionary standpoint. Metabolic diseases, including obesity and diabetes, have become increasingly prevalent in modern society and have reached epidemic levels.

The roots of this trend can be traced back to early evolutionary times when adipose tissue evolved as a specialized tissue for storing energy in the form of triglycerides, which can be utilized in times of food scarcity.

This Collection welcomes research and review articles exploring the evolutionary origin of metabolic diseases, considering factors such as dietary shifts, physical activity patterns, and genetic adaptations. By integrating evolutionary principles in metabolic medicine, the goal of this collection is to deepen our understanding of this complex relationship, thus opening the door for the development of novel therapies.

Submission Guidelines

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Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have read our submission guidelines. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection/Thematic Series, please select "Evolutionary Aspects of Metabolic Diseases" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Guest Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Guest Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.