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New Trends in Brain Glucose Metabolism, Morphology and Function

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A special issue of Journal of Clinical Medicine (ISSN 2077-0383). This special issue belongs to the section "Clinical Neurology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 November 2022) | Viewed by 12169

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Marco Bucci

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Guest Editor

Division of Clinical Geriatrics, Center for Alzheimer Research, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Insitutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Interests: positron-emission tomography; brain; glucose metabolism; Alzheimer’s disease; Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers; fatty acid metabolism; obesity; type 2 diabetes mellitus

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), obesity, and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) are intertwined by alterations in brain glucose metabolism and lifestyle interventions have been actively employed for their prevention and treatment. But only recently, brain glucose metabolism has started to be seen as the therapeutic target of such interventions. Thanks to the employing of positron emission tomography (PET) and the tracer [18-F]Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), it has been possible for many decades to non-invasively quantify brain glucose uptake (BGU) in humans. Nonetheless, it is only recently that BGU measurement has been questioned with the evidence suggesting how astrocyte tracer uptake, rather than neurons alone, constitute part of the signal of FDG-PET in the brain. One of the angles of this Special Issue would be to shed light on recent developments on this controversy. The broad focus is to investigate brain metabolism, morphology (MRI) or function (fMRI) in the context of the aforementioned diseases. Preclinical research could provide insight in the disease mechanisms with dedicated models, while clinical research could be focussed on brain alone or in relation to peripheral organs. Longitudinally, it is of interest the investigation of lifestyle intervention such as exercise and diet in AD, T2DM and Obesity. Fatty acids and their metabolism are possibly competing with glucose and lactate, another important substrate. Fatty acid metabolism disruptions have been recently linked to AD, obesity, and T2DM and it would be essential for research to combine brain glucose and fatty acid metabolism investigation in the same subjects. In summary, this Special Issue will provide updated knowledge of brain glucose metabolism as primary or secondary mediator of disease and as a potential target for lifestyle interventions in management of metabolic and neurologic diseases. This would potentially bring researchers to invest more efforts in the field and clinicians to increase awareness about the relevance of the alterations of the brain glucose metabolism.

Dr. Marco Bucci
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Clinical Medicine is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

brain metabolism
glucose metabolism
positron-emission tomography
exercise
Alzheimer’s disease
type 2 diabetes mellitus
obesity
fatty acid metabolism
diet
astrocytes

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 6376 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of Age and Sex-Related Metabolic Changes in Healthy Subjects: An Italian Brain 18F-FDG PET Study

by Michela Allocca, Flavia Linguanti, Maria Lucia Calcagni, Angelina Cistaro, Valeria Gaudieri, Ugo Paolo Guerra, Silvia Morbelli, Flavio Nobili, Sabina Pappatà, Stelvio Sestini, Duccio Volterrani, Valentina Berti and for the Neurology Study Group of the Italian Association of Nuclear Medicine

J. Clin. Med. 2021, 10(21), 4932; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10214932 - 25 Oct 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2065

Abstract

Background: 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron-emission-tomography (PET) allows detection of cerebral metabolic alterations in neurological diseases vs. normal aging. We assess age- and sex-related brain metabolic changes in healthy subjects, exploring impact of activity normalization methods. Methods: brain scans of Italian Association of Nuclear Medicine normative database (151 subjects, 67 Males, 84 Females, aged 20–84) were selected. Global mean, white matter, and pons activity were explored as normalization reference. We performed voxel-based and ROI analyses using SPM12 and IBM-SPSS software. Results: SPM proved a negative correlation between age and brain glucose metabolism involving frontal lobes, anterior-cingulate and insular cortices bilaterally. Narrower clusters were detected in lateral parietal lobes, precuneus, temporal pole and medial areas bilaterally. Normalizing on pons activity, we found a more significant negative correlation and no positive one. ROIs analysis confirmed SPM results. Moreover, a significant age × sex interaction effect was revealed, with worse metabolic reduction in posterior-cingulate cortices in females than males, especially in post-menopausal age. Conclusions: this study demonstrated an age-related metabolic reduction in frontal lobes and in some parieto-temporal areas more evident in females. Results suggested pons as the most appropriate normalization reference. Knowledge of age- and sex-related cerebral metabolic changes is critical to correctly interpreting brain 18F-FDG PET imaging. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Brain Glucose Metabolism, Morphology and Function)

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8 pages, 462 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Obesity Risk SNP (rs17782313) near the MC4R Gene Is Not Associated with Brain Glucose Uptake during Insulin Clamp—A Study in Finns

by Eleni Rebelos, Miikka-Juhani Honka, Laura Ekblad, Marco Bucci, Jarna C. Hannukainen, Lilian Fernandes Silva, Kirsi A. Virtanen, Lauri Nummenmaa and Pirjo Nuutila

J. Clin. Med. 2021, 10(6), 1312; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10061312 - 23 Mar 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2138

Abstract

The melanocortin system is involved in the control of adiposity through modulation of food intake and energy expenditure. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs17782313 near the MC4R gene has been linked to obesity, and a previous study using magnetoencephalography has shown that carriers of the mutant allele have decreased cerebrocortical response to insulin. Thus, in this study, we addressed whether rs17782313 associates with brain glucose uptake (BGU). Here, [¹⁸F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) data from 113 Finnish subjects scanned under insulin clamp conditions who also had the rs17782313 determined were compiled from a single-center cohort. BGU was quantified by the fractional uptake rate. Statistical analysis was performed with statistical parametric mapping. There was no difference in age, BMI, and insulin sensitivity as indexed by the M value between the rs17782313-C allele carriers and non-carriers. Brain glucose uptake during insulin clamp was not different by gene allele, and it correlated with the M value, in both the rs17782313-C allele carriers and non-carriers. The obesity risk SNP rs17782313 near the MC4R gene is not associated with brain glucose uptake during insulin clamp in humans, and this frequent mutation cannot explain the enhanced brain glucose metabolic rates in insulin resistance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Brain Glucose Metabolism, Morphology and Function)

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Review

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16 pages, 3107 KiB

Open AccessReview

Brain Glucose Metabolism in Health, Obesity, and Cognitive Decline—Does Insulin Have Anything to Do with It? A Narrative Review

by Eleni Rebelos, Juha O. Rinne, Pirjo Nuutila and Laura L. Ekblad

J. Clin. Med. 2021, 10(7), 1532; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10071532 - 6 Apr 2021

Cited by 32 | Viewed by 6833

Abstract

Imaging brain glucose metabolism with fluorine-labelled fluorodeoxyglucose ([¹⁸F]-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) has long been utilized to aid the diagnosis of memory disorders, in particular in differentiating Alzheimer’s disease (AD) from other neurological conditions causing cognitive decline. The interest for studying brain glucose metabolism in the context of metabolic disorders has arisen more recently. Obesity and type 2 diabetes—two diseases characterized by systemic insulin resistance—are associated with an increased risk for AD. Along with the well-defined patterns of fasting [¹⁸F]-FDG-PET changes that occur in AD, recent evidence has shown alterations in fasting and insulin-stimulated brain glucose metabolism also in obesity and systemic insulin resistance. Thus, it is important to clarify whether changes in brain glucose metabolism are just an epiphenomenon of the pathophysiology of the metabolic and neurologic disorders, or a crucial determinant of their pathophysiologic cascade. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge regarding alterations in brain glucose metabolism, studied with [¹⁸F]-FDG-PET from metabolic disorders to AD, with a special focus on how manipulation of insulin levels affects brain glucose metabolism in health and in systemic insulin resistance. A better understanding of alterations in brain glucose metabolism in health, obesity, and neurodegeneration, and the relationships between insulin resistance and central nervous system glucose metabolism may be an important step for the battle against metabolic and cognitive disorders. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Brain Glucose Metabolism, Morphology and Function)

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