Identification of MMP12 as a potential new target for prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic disease

Obesity is strongly associated with the metabolic syndrome, a compilation of risk factors that predispose individuals to the development of cardiometabolic disease (CMD), i.e. cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Controlling or preventing the worldwide epidemic of metabolic syndrome requires novel interventions to address this substantial health challenge. The objective of this study was the identification of potential new targets for the simultaneous prevention and treatment of insulin resistance and atherosclerosis, conditions that underlie T2DM and CVD, respectively. Therefore, we used an unbiased bioinformatics approach to identify molecules that are upregulated in both conditions by combining data from two microarray experiments and two meta-analyses. In the microarray experiments we compared gene expression in white adipose tissue (WAT) of obese mice as well as aortae of obese and atherosclerotic mice to respective lean controls. Furthermore, we performed a meta-analysis of published microarrays investigating atherosclerotic vessels and included a published meta-analysis on T2DM into our analyses. We obtained a pool of thirty-four genes that were upregulated in 3 out of the 4 underlying databases. These included well-known as well as novel crucial molecules for treatment of T2DM and CVD. Macrophage metalloelastase 12 (MMP12) was found highly ranked in all analyses and, therefore, chosen for further validation. Analyses of visceral and subcutaneous white adipose tissue from obese compared to lean mice and humans convincingly confirmed the up-regulation of MMP12 in obesity at mRNA, protein and, of note, activity levels. In conclusion, by this unbiased approach an interesting pool of potential molecular targets or biomarkers for treatment and prevention of CMD was identified with MMP12 being confirmed on multiple levels.

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Amor M, Moreno Viedma V, Sarabi A, Grün NG, Itariu B, Leitner L, Steiner I, Bilban M, Kodama K, Butte AJ, Staffler G, Zeyda M, Stulnig TM