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Alex Murashova performs research in a lab with his wife, Elena Pak in the Brody School of Medicine.
Alex Murashova performs research in a lab with his wife, Elena Pak in the Brody School of Medicine.
Parental diet and physical activity levels are critical factors in the prevalence of obesity and metabolic disorders such as diabetes not only among their offspring but also their children’s children and beyond, according to researchers at East Carolina University.
Studies at ECU have shown epigenetic factors — those that are passed down in addition to DNA — such as ancestral diet, can influence offspring feeding behavior along with changes in activity, triglyceride levels and mitochondrial density in the brain. They also found the generational differences are associated with changes in sets of proteins in the brain proteome and microRNA, the bioregulators that can determine how genes function.
Their most recent findings, under review by the journal Scientific Reports, together with the familial clustering of obesity, may indicate children’s food preferences and eating habits could be hard-wired into their brains — that ancestral nutrition could be a critical factor in feeding behavior.
“Something is transmitted from parents to offspring making them more predisposed to obesity or other metabolic disorders,” said Alexander Murashov, a professor of physiology at the Brody School of Medicine. “We don’t know the mechanism. But it may be changes at mitochondrial level.”
“If we find the markers and find the mechanism, then maybe we can correct the problem in the children,” he added.
Murashov is collaborating with Darrell Neufer, professor of physiology and director of the East Carolina Diabetes and Obesity Institute; Kelsey Fisher-Wellman, assistant professor of physiology at ECU; and Krishna Bhat, professor of molecular medicine at the University of South Florida. Their research has been funded by grants totaling more than $1.5 million from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
The team is focusing on paternal effects not only of diet, but also exercise, and is finding offspring are showing metabolic impacts as far as four generations down the line. Now they’re working on finding the genetic markers that could help them identify which parents may have children at risk for becoming overweight.
Metabolism also plays a role. Eons ago, using one’s calories wisely was a good thing. In today’s calorie-rich environment, that’s not necessarily true.
“It goes back to the thrifty gene hypothesis that’s been around a long time, where humans evolved to be as thrifty with their energy reserves as possible,” Neufer said. “So the simple way to put it — humans evolved to be as efficient as possible because one never knew where and when that next meal was coming from. Fast forward to the last 50-100 years, those evolutionary offspring are very energy efficient but are now in an environment where high-calorie food is abundant. As a result, they gain weight faster and develop insulin resistance sooner.”
On top of that, studies showed paternal exercise can induce generational transmission of thrifty gene metabolic traits to offspring.
Their studies are published in FASEB in 2016 and 2020, and the latest is in preprint in Research Square.
ECU researcher brings problem gambling to light
Research by an ECU professor shows that North Carolina has a high rate of problem gambling despite the lack of legalized gambling available in the state, said Dr. Michelle Malkin, assistant professor of criminal justice in the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences.
Problem gambling not only affects the gambler, but also an estimated 10 to 17 people, primarily family members or coworkers, are affected by a gambler’s addiction, Malkin said.
“(Problem) gambling produces a cycle of addiction wherein gamblers acquire debt from gambling and must then gamble to earn money to pay off these debts while remaining stuck in this pattern and unable to desist, resulting in gambling-motivated crimes,” she said.
According to Malkin, gambling-motivated crimes are primarily non-violent, financial offenses committed to pay off gambling debts or continue gambling. The most common types of gambling-motivated crimes are embezzlement, larceny, theft, robbery and forgery or creating counterfeit money, and these are most often committed against family, friends or employers.
“The more severe the addiction, the more likely the individual will commit a gambling motivated crime,” she said.
Malkin is fast becoming a nationally recognized expert in the field of problem or disorder gambling, with a focus on gambling-motivated crime. In the past three years, she has been an invited presenter or keynote speaker at 10 conferences and symposiums on the subject — five just this year.
Malkin’s newest article, which is out for consideration for publication, is “Gambling-Motivated Crime: The Social, Economic and Criminal Consequences of Problem Gambling.”
Through her research and various presentations, Malkin explains the history of gambling, differences between social gambling and problem gambling, how problem gambling may lead to specific crimes to supplement the gambler’s addiction, consequences or lack thereof for these crimes, and statistics and differences among problem gamblers based on gender.
“It is estimated that a problem gambler affects the lives of between 10 to 17 individuals, primarily within the family and work environments,” Malkin said. “Issues within the family include high divorce rates, child neglect, child abuse, family dysfunction and a possible increase in intimate partner violence.”
Based on Malkin’s research, rates of problem gambling throughout the U.S. range from 1% to more than 8%. North Carolina has a 5.5% rate of problem gambling, which she said is high “given that people within N.C. do not have easy access to many forms of gambling that are currently legalized elsewhere.”
She said this percentage would likely have increased, even among college-age individuals, if legalized sports betting was passed in North Carolina this summer. However, the bill did not pass, and sports betting is legal at only two Cherokee tribal casinos in the western part of the state.
Malkin said that nationwide, 50% of individuals at the “most severe stages of problem gambling” are likely to commit a gambling-motivated crime, though most do not face any type of legal penalty or sanction. The crimes most likely to be penalized and lead to conviction are embezzlement and opening a credit card in someone else’s name.
Crimes perpetrated by a problem gambler may also be seen as an alternative to suicide, according to Malkin. Her research indicates 20% of problem gamblers will attempt suicide — the highest percentage of all addictions.
She suggests potential resources for gamblers include Gamblers Anonymous, inpatient and outpatient therapy, Zoom meetings and social media support pages — especially during the COVID pandemic — including the Women Gamblers in Recovery, Gambling Addiction and Recovery, and Problem Gambling Hope & Recovery Facebook pages, and the National Council on Problem Gambling website or its helpline at 1-800-522-4700.
Contact jstorm@reflector.com or 252-329-9587.
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