Work

AdipokineDis: multi-angle dissection of adipokine atlas highlights pivotal roles in pathophysiological processes with therapeutic potential

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Adipokines, a class of adipocyte-derived biologically active substances, have a critical role in regulating diverse physiological and pathophysiological processes, spanning metabolism, immunity and tumorigenesis. Despite the recognized involvement of adipocyte-secreted adipokines in multiple complex human diseases, the absence of a systematic dissection of adipokine repertoires severely hinders efforts to elucidate their molecular mechanisms and therapeutic potential in pathological contexts. To address this challenge and exhaustively reveal adipokine atlas and associations with complex diseases, we found that many adipokines showed functional heterogeneity via multiomics analysis based on reported adipokine datasets, and specific molecular alterations were associated with oncogenic pathways during tumorigenesis, demonstrating roles of adipokines in cancer subtyping and prognostic stratification. Adipokine-related networks may contextualize the disease-specific signature and delineate actionable insights for clinical potential, particularly ncRNA-mediated regulatory network and genetic interactions as actionable therapeutic vulnerabilities based on the concept of synthetic lethality. Further, a user-friendly and integrative AdipokineDis database ( https://www.tmliang.cn/adiDB/#/home ) was developed, focusing on adipokines and diseases. AdipokineDis contained multilayered annotations of adipokines, molecular landscapes and clinical estimation, adipokine-related genetic networks and evolutionary patterns, aiming to provide a comprehensive survey for adipokines and a novel perspective to address adipokine profiles in physiological and pathophysiological processes via bridging basic adipokine research with clinical applications.

Source: Biology Direct

DOI: 10.1186/s13062-026-00943-9