Extracellular Vesicles, Insulin Action, and Exercise

Official title

Extracellular Vesicles, Insulin Action, and Exercise on Vascular Function in Type 2 Diabetes

Overview

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) play a role in obesity-induced insulin resistance and likely impact the development of cardiovascular disease. However, little is known on how EVs affect vascular insulin action in people. The purpose of this study is to understand how EVs play a role in type 2 diabetes related cardiovascular disease. This research will also study if exercise can change how EVs impact blood flow and metabolic health. This study will contribute to designing precision medicine to treat/prevent cardiovascular disease in type 2 diabetes.

Detailed description

Insulin resistance is a key underlying factor promoting hyperglycemia and hypertension in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D), who have a 3-fold greater cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk when compared with healthy controls. Despite several therapeutic approaches that favor insulin sensitivity through a variety of purported mechanisms (e.g. weight loss, incretins, AMPK activation, reduction in bioactive lipids: DAG/ceramides, etc.), long-term progression of glucose deterioration occurs. This suggests adjunctive targets may be important to prevent/reverse T2D. Studies show that extracellular vesicles (EVs) obtained from plasma are involved in obesity-induced insulin resistance at levels of adipocytes, muscle, and liver. However, little is known how plasma EVs affect vascular insulin action in humans. This is of clinical relevance as EVs enhance the Framingham Risk Score, suggesting EVs are a unique factor promoting CVD. This proposal will fill this knowledge gap by conducting a translational study in 3 distinct groups of people separated by obesity and T2D. The investigators hypothesize that 1) insulin will promote EV uptake and modify insulin signaling in endothelial cells, 2) EVs from adults with T2D will impair vessel reactivity compared to controls; 3) insulin will alter circulating EV insulin signaling and cargo, and 4) exercise training will change EV uptake and cargo as well as EV mediated vascular reactivity to insulin as well as relate to improved vascular function in humans.

Interventions

• Behavioral Exercise
  Supervised treadmill exercise at 85% VO2max, 3x/wk for 16 weeks. Exercise duration will be adjusted based on individual VO2-heart rate (HR) relationship so that \~400 kcals will be expended during each training session.

Primary outcome measures

• Change in Extracellular Vesicles during insulin infusion [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 16 weeks.]

Secondary outcome measures (6)

• Change in Metabolic Insulin Sensitivity by the Isoglycemic Clamp [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 16 weeks.]
• Change in Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 16 weeks.]
• Change in Flow Mediated Dilation of the brachial artery [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 16 weeks.]
• Change in Pulse Wave Velocity [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 16 weeks.]
• Change in Augmentation Index [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 16 weeks.]
• Change in Post Ischemic Flow Velocity in the brachial artery [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 16 weeks.]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• Male or female 30 - 80 years old.
• HbA1c <5.7% and fasting glucose <100mg/dl to be considered NGT
• T2D diagnosis or confirmation HbA1c ≥6.5% and fasting glucose ≥126 mg/dl
• Prescribed metformin, GLP-1 agonists (oral/injectable), TZDs, DPP-IV inhibitors, Acarbose, SGLT-2 inhibitors ≥6 year.
• Has a body mass index of 20-24.99 or 25.0-45 kg/m2.
• Not diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
• Not currently engaged in >150 min/wk of exercise.

Exclusion criteria

• Participants with morbid obesity (BMI >45 kg/m2) and underweight patients (BMI: ≤18 kg/m2).
• Intolerance to insulin
• Evidence of type 1 diabetes and diabetics requiring insulin therapy.
• Participants who have not been weight stable (≥2 kg weight change in past 6 months)
• Participants who have been recently active in past 6 months via health screening questions (≥150 min of moderate/high intensity exercise)
• T2D with HbA1c ≥10.0%
• Participants who are smokers or who have quit smoking ≤2 years ago
• Participants prescribed metformin, GLP-1 agonists (oral/injectable), TZDs, DPP-IV inhibitors, Acarbose, SGLT-2 inhibitors within 6 year.
• Hypertriglyceridemic (≥400 mg/dl) and hypercholesterolemic (≥260 mg/dl) participants as determined from LabCorp samples.
• Kidney dysfunction as determined from LabCorp biochemical outcomes (e.g. creatinine (≥1.0 mg/dl), eGFR (≤59 ml/min/1.73), BUN (≥24 mg/dl) as derived from comprehensive metabolic panels).
• Hypertensive (≥160/100 mmHg) at time of screening.
• Abnormal liver function (reflective from comprehensive panel liver enzymes Alk (≥121 IU/L), AST (≥40 IU/L) and ALT (≥32 IU/L) via LabCorp).
• History of significant metabolic, cardiac, cerebrovascular, hematological, pulmonary, gastrointestinal, liver, renal, or endocrine disease or cancer that in the investigator's opinion would interfere with or alter the outcome measures, or impact subject safety.
• Pregnant (as evidenced by positive pregnancy test) or nursing women
• Participants with contraindications to participation in an exercise training program
• Known hypersensitivity to perflutren (contained in Definity).
• Anemic as confirmed by hematocrit (HCT) (women ≤36%, Men ≤38%) at time of screening.
• Suggested infections at time of screening as confirmed by WBC (≥10.8 x10E3/uL) and/or platelets (≥450 x10E3/uL).

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: Yes

Study design

Allocation

Non-randomized

Model

Parallel assignment

Masking

Open label

Primary purpose

Basic science

Study locations

United States · 3 centers

• Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health — New Brunswick
• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Clinical Research Center — New Brunswick
• Rutgers University Loree Gymnasium — New Brunswick

Publications

• Zhang M, Wang L, Chen Z. Research progress of extracellular vesicles in type 2 diabetes and its complications. Diabet Med. 2022 Sep;39(9):e14865. doi: 10.1111/dme.14865. Epub 2022 May 20. PMID 35509124
• Nozaki T, Sugiyama S, Koga H, Sugamura K, Ohba K, Matsuzawa Y, Sumida H, Matsui K, Jinnouchi H, Ogawa H. Significance of a multiple biomarkers strategy including endothelial dysfunction to improve risk stratification for cardiovascular events in patients at high risk for coronary heart disease. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2009 Aug 11;54(7):601-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2009.05.022. PMID 19660689
• Ragland TJ, Heiston EM, Ballantyne A, Stewart NR, La Salvia S, Musante L, Luse MA, Isakson BE, Erdbrugger U, Malin SK. Extracellular vesicles and insulin-mediated vascular function in metabolic syndrome. Physiol Rep. 2023 Jan;11(1):e15530. doi: 10.14814/phy2.15530. PMID 36597186
• Heiston EM, Ballantyne A, Stewart NR, La Salvia S, Musante L, Lanningan J, Erdbrugger U, Malin SK. Insulin infusion decreases medium-sized extracellular vesicles in adults with metabolic syndrome. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2022 Oct 1;323(4):E378-E388. doi: 10.1152/ajpendo.00022.2022. Epub 2022 Jul 20. PMID 35858245
• Heiston EM, Ballantyne A, La Salvia S, Musante L, Erdbrugger U, Malin SK. Acute exercise decreases insulin-stimulated extracellular vesicles in conjunction with augmentation index in adults with obesity. J Physiol. 2023 Nov;601(22):5033-5050. doi: 10.1113/JP282274. Epub 2022 Feb 16. PMID 35081660
• Eichner NZM, Gilbertson NM, Heiston EM, Musante L, LA Salvia S, Weltman A, Erdbrugger U, Malin SK. Interval Exercise Lowers Circulating CD105 Extracellular Vesicles in Prediabetes. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2020 Mar;52(3):729-735. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002185. PMID 31609300
• Hallmark R, Patrie JT, Liu Z, Gaesser GA, Barrett EJ, Weltman A. The effect of exercise intensity on endothelial function in physically inactive lean and obese adults. PLoS One. 2014 Jan 20;9(1):e85450. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0085450. eCollection 2014. PMID 24465565
• Steinberg HO, Chaker H, Leaming R, Johnson A, Brechtel G, Baron AD. Obesity/insulin resistance is associated with endothelial dysfunction. Implications for the syndrome of insulin resistance. J Clin Invest. 1996 Jun 1;97(11):2601-10. doi: 10.1172/JCI118709. PMID 8647954

Identifiers

NCT: NCT06546085 · Pro2024000230 · R01DK133598-01A1

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗