Doctors and their patients have puzzled over why certain cholesterol-lowering drugs work better in some people than others. In research results published in the December issue of the journal Nature Genetics, the common minnow helps provide an answer.
Researchers Douglas Crawford and Jennifer Roach of the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) and Marjorie Oleksiak of North Carolina State University studied the genetic make-up of the fish and found that normal differences in how their heart muscles process fats and sugars contain clues to this mystery. The National Science Foundation (NSF)'s biocomplexity in the environment program, and biological oceanography program, funded the work.
"These scientists found a genetic set of keys that begins to unlock the mystery of why certain people can eat fatty foods and not suffer from heart disease, and why some medical treatments work more effectively in some people than in others," said Philip Taylor, director of NSF's biological oceanography program. "This far-reaching research is a result of NSF's investment in the use of genetics as a way of understanding how organisms adapt to their environments."
Some hearts, it turns out, use glucose (sugar) better than others. Some use fatty acids (fats) better. In general, if an individual is good at using or metabolizing one source, he or she is not good at using the other.