Areca catechu-(Betel-nut)-induced whole transcriptome changes in a human monocyte cell line that may have relevance to diabetes and obesity; a pilot study

• Main Authors: Shirleny R Cardosa, B. William Ogunkolade, Rob Lowe, Emanuel Savage, Charles A Mein, Barbara J Boucher, Graham A Hitman
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2021-08-01
• Series: BMC Endocrine Disorders
• Subjects: Betel-nut; Type 2 diabetes; Obesity; Transcriptomics; RNA-sequencing
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12902-021-00827-1

Abstract Background Betel-nut consumption is the fourth most common addictive habit globally and there is good evidence linking the habit to obesity, type 2 diabetes (T2D) and the metabolic syndrome. The aim of our pilot study was to identify gene expression relevant to obesity, T2D and the metabolic syndrome using a genome-wide transcriptomic approach in a human monocyte cell line incubated with arecoline and its nitrosated products. Results The THP1 monocyte cell line was incubated separately with arecoline and 3-methylnitrosaminopropionaldehyde (MNPA) in triplicate for 24 h and pooled cDNA indexed paired-end libraries were sequenced (Illumina NextSeq 500). After incubation with arecoline and MNPA, 15 and 39 genes respectively had significant changes in their expression (q < 0.05, log fold change 1.5). Eighteen of those genes have reported associations with T2D and obesity in humans; of these genes there was most marked evidence for CLEC10A, MAPK8IP1, NEGR1, NQ01 and INHBE genes. Conclusions Our preliminary studies have identified a large number of genes relevant to obesity, T2D and metabolic syndrome whose expression was changed significantly in human TPH1 cells following incubation with betel-nut derived arecoline or with MNPA. These findings require validation by further cell-based work and investigation amongst betel-chewing communities.