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Background: Liraglutide, a long-acting glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP1RA), is a well-established anti-diabetic drug, has also been approved for the treatment of obesity at a dose of 3 mg. There are a limited number of studies in the literature that have looked at changes in metabolite levels before and after liraglutide treatment in patients with obesity. To this end, in the present study we aimed to explore the changes in the plasma metabolomic profile, using liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) in patients with obesity. Methods: A single-center prospective study was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of 3 mg liraglutide therapy in twenty-three patients (M/F: 8/15) with obesity, mean BMI 40.81 ± 5.04 kg/m2, and mean age of 36 ± 10.9 years, in two groups: at baseline (pre-treatment) and after 12 weeks of treatment (post-treatment). An untargeted metabolomic profiling was conducted in plasma from the pre-treatment and post-treatment groups using LC-HRMS, along with bioinformatics analysis using ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA). Results: The metabolomics analysis revealed a significant (FDR p-value ≤ 0.05, FC 1.5) dysregulation of 161 endogenous metabolites (97 upregulated and 64 downregulated) with distinct separation between the two groups. Among the significantly dysregulated metabolites, the majority of them were identified as belonging to the class of oxidized lipids (oxylipins) that includes arachidonic acid and its derivatives, phosphorglycerophosphates, N-acylated amino acids, steroid hormones, and bile acids. The biomarker analysis conducted using MetaboAnalyst showed PGP (a21:0/PG/F1alpha), an oxidized lipid, as the first metabolite among the list of the top 15 biomarkers, followed by cysteine and estrone. The IPA analysis showed that the dysregulated metabolites impacted the pathway related to cell signaling, free radical scavenging, and molecular transport, and were focused around the dysregulation of NF-κB, ERK, MAPK, PKc, VEGF, insulin, and pro-inflammatory cytokine signaling pathways. Conclusions: The findings suggest that liraglutide treatment reduces inflammation and modulates lipid metabolism and oxidative stress. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the drug's multifaceted impact on overall metabolism in patients with obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Medical education was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the abrupt shift to online education on lockdown. Online education challenged and negatively impacted medical colleges worldwide, especially for medical training and teaching clinical skills that require practice and clinical encounters. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the curriculum delivery and assessment of the internal medicine course during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown (2019-2020) and compare the assessment results to a control pre-COVID-19 year (2018-2019). Methods: The study design was a retrospective study. All 3rd-year medical students (a total of 882 students) enrolled in the internal medicine course were enrolled in the study: 303 students in 2018-2019, 299 students in 2019-2020, and 280 in 2020-2021. In March 2020, there was a sudden shift to online education due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All lectures were conducted online in the same number and with the same content. Clinical bedside teaching was replaced with selected videos that demonstrated the clinical examination skills planned in the learning objectives. Results: During COVID (62.4%), students performed better than pre-COVID (59.5%) on the medicine midterm multiple-choice questions (MCQs) examination. Similarly, students' marks in the long case during-COVID (84.6%) were improved compared to their marks pre-COVID (82.0%). A very strong correlation was found between midterm MCQs and final MCQs (r = 0.74; P = 0.000), followed by the objective structure clinical examination (OSCE) (r = 0.50; P = 0.000) and long-term MCQs (r = 0.29; P = 0.000). There was only a weak relation between midterm MCQs and DXR (r = 0.02; P = 0.67). Similarly, the final MCQs were strongly correlated with the midterm MCQs (P = 0.000), followed by the OSCE (P = 0.000). Conclusions: The present study demonstrated the success of the introduction of adaptive changes in the internal medicine course to cope with COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. It showed how medical education continued during the COVID-19 pandemic while ensuring student safety. While other medical education methods could be implemented and allow for similar results, innovation in medical education methods should continue to evolve even after the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adipocytes play a critical role in maintaining a healthy systemic metabolism by storing and releasing energy in the form of fat and helping to regulate glucose and lipid levels in the body. Adipogenesis is the process through which pre-adipocytes are differentiated into mature adipocytes. It is a complex process involving various transcription factors and signaling pathways. The dysregulation of adipogenesis has been implicated in the development of obesity and metabolic disorders. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms that regulate adipogenesis and the factors that contribute to its dysregulation may provide insights into the prevention and treatment of these conditions. RNA-binding motif single-stranded interacting protein 1 (RBMS1) is a protein that binds to RNA and plays a critical role in various cellular processes such as alternative splicing, mRNA stability, and translation. RBMS1 polymorphism has been shown to be associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes, but the role of RBMS1 in adipose metabolism and adipogenesis is not known. We show that RBMS1 is highly expressed during the early phase of the differentiation of the murine adipocyte cell line 3T3-L1 and is significantly upregulated in the adipose tissue depots and adipocytes of high-fat-fed mice, implying a possible role in adipogenesis and adipose metabolism. Knockdown of RBMS1 in pre-adipocytes impacted the differentiation process and reduced the expression of some of the key adipogenic markers. Transcriptomic and proteomic analysis indicated that RBMS1 depletion affected the expression of several genes involved in major metabolic processes, including carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. Our findings imply that RBMS1 plays an important role in adipocyte metabolism and may offer novel therapeutic opportunity for metabolic disorders such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]