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Obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) remain major global healthcare challenges and developing therapeutics necessitate using nonhuman primate models. Here, we present transcriptomic and proteomic analyses of all the major organs of cynomolgus monkeys with spontaneous obesity or T2D in comparison to healthy controls. Molecular changes occur predominantly in the adipose tissues of individuals with obesity, while extensive expression perturbations among T2D individuals are observed in many tissues, such as the liver, kidney, brain, and heart. Immune response-related pathways are upregulated in obesity and T2D, whereas metabolism and mitochondrial pathways are downregulated. Incorporating human single-cell RNA sequencing findings corroborates the role of macrophages and monocytes in obesity. Moreover, we highlight some potential therapeutic targets including SLC2A1 and PCSK1 in obesity as well as SLC30A8 and SLC2A2 in T2D. Our findings provide insights into tissue-specific molecular foundations of obesity and T2D and reveal the mechanistic links between these two metabolic disorders.

The success of small molecule therapeutics that promotes degradation of critical cancer targets has fueled an intense effort to mimic this activity with bispecific molecules called PROTACs (proteolysis targeting chimeras). The simultaneous binding of PROTACs to a ligase and target can induce proximity-driven ubiquitination and degradation. VHL and CRBN are the two best characterized PROTAC ligases, but the rules governing their cellular activities remain unclear. To establish these requirements and extend them to new ligases, we screened a panel of 56 cell lines with two potent PROTACs that utilized VHL, MZ1, or CRBN, dBET1 to induce degradation of BRD4. With notable exceptions, MZ1 was broadly active in the panel whereas dBET1 was frequently inactive. A search for predictive biomarkers of PROTAC activity found that expression and mutation of VHL and CRBN were themselves predictors of PROTAC activity in the cell line panel.