The islet in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) is characterized by loss of ,B cells and large local deposits of amyloid derived from the 37-amino acid protein, islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP Non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) is characterized by (3-cell destruction and islet amyloid derived from islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) (1, 2). IAPP is a 37-amino acid protein that possesses amyloidogenic properties in species that spontaneously develop NIDDM (humans, monkeys, cats), but is non-amyloidogenic in mice that do not develop NIDDM (3, 4). Overexpression of human IAPP (h-IAPP), but not rat IAPP, in COS cells resulted in intracellular IAPP amyloidosis that was associated with cell death (5). Thus far, hemizygous transgenic mice for h-IAPP have not been reported to develop islet amyloid or diabetes mellitus spontaneously (6-8). Induction of marked insulin resistance in hemizygous mice transgenic for h-IAPP provokes intra-and extracellular IAPP amyloid formation, which is associated with 13-cell death and hyperglycemia (9).Based on these observations, we hypothesized that sufficiently increased rates of h-IAPP expression and synthesis results in intracellular IAPP amyloidosis and (3-cell death, which results in diabetes mellitus (10). To examine this further, we developed a homozygous line of mice transgenic for h-IAPP, thereby doubling the h-IAPP gene copy number. We report here that these mice spontaneously developed diabetes mellitus due to (3-cell death, which was associated with abnormal intra-and extracellular aggregates of h-IAPP. We conclude that overproduction of IAPP in vulnerable species (humans, monkeys, cats) may cause (3-cell destruction and diabetes mellitus. MATERIALS AND METHODSPreparation of Transgenic Construct. The RIPHAT transgene (2395 bp) is described elsewhere (9). It consists of a PCR-generated cDNA encompassing the h-IAPP coding sequence (270 bp) under the regulation of the rat insulin II promoter/5' untranslated region and followed by intron I (728 bp) from the human albumin gene and the polyadenylylation site/RNA termination region (525 bp) from the human glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate gene (GAPDH). Use of the albumin intron I and GAPDH polyadenylylation site in transgenic constructs has been described (11).Generation of Transgenic Mice. Hemizygotes of the RHF line described in Couce et al. (9) were self-crossed to generate Fl offspring. Transgenic offspring were identified by PCR amplification of RIPHAT from tail DNA. Hemizygotes were distinguished from homozygotes by backcross breeding to nontransgenic FVB/N mice. Homozygotes were defined as those mice that generated more than 20 transgenic and no nontransgenic offspring. Four such homozygotes were used to establish the core RHF breeding colony.Northern Blot Analysis. Total RNA was prepared from whole pancreata of FVB/N, RHF hemizygote, and RHF homozygote males and females. Gels and blots were prepared and hybridized as described (9)

We have previously shown that hemizygous transgenic mice expressing human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) in pancreatic beta-cells have no diabetic phenotype, whereas in the homozygous state, they developed severe, early-onset hyperglycemia associated with impaired insulin secretion and beta-cell death. We investigated the possibility that when the hemizygous mice are crossed onto an obese, insulin-resistant strain such as agouti viable yellow (A(vy)/a), they would exhibit a phenotype more akin to human type 2 diabetes. The hIAPP-expressing A(vy) males (TG-Y) displayed fasting hyperglycemia at 90 days of age and by 1 year progressed to severe hyperglycemia relative to their nontransgenic counterparts. Plasma insulin concentrations and pancreatic insulin content dropped 10- to 20-fold, suggesting severe impairment of beta-cell function. Histopathological findings revealed beta-cell degeneration and loss consistent with the drop in the plasma insulin concentration. In addition, large deposits of IAPP amyloid were present in TG-Y islets. We conclude that in transgenic mice expressing hIAPP, insulin resistance can induce overt, slow-onset diabetes associated with islet amyloid and decreased beta-cell mass.

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<div><div><div><p>Organic reactions are usually assigned to classes grouping reactions with similar reagents and mechanisms. Reaction classes facilitate communication of complex concepts and efficient navigation through chemical reaction space. However, the classification process is a tedious task, requiring the identification of the corresponding reaction class template via annotation of the number of molecules in the reactions, the reaction center and the distinction between reactants and reagents. In this work, we show that transformer-based models can infer reaction classes from non-annotated, simple text-based representations of chemical reactions. Our best model reaches a classification accuracy of 98.2%. We also show that the learned representations can be used as reaction fingerprints which capture fine-grained differences between reaction classes better than traditional reaction fingerprints. The unprecedented insights into chemical reaction space enabled by our learned fingerprints is illustrated by an interactive reaction atlas providing visual clustering and similarity searching. </p><p><br></p><p>Code: https://github.com/rxn4chemistry/rxnfp</p><p>Tutorials: https://rxn4chemistry.github.io/rxnfp/</p><p>Interactive reaction atlas: https://rxn4chemistry.github.io/rxnfp//tmaps/tmap_ft_10k.html</p></div></div></div>

Islet amyloid derived from islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) is a well-recognized feature of type II diabetes. However, the mechanism of islet amyloidogenesis is unknown. In vitro studies suggest that amino acid residues 20-29 in human, but not mouse, IAPP confer amyloidogenicity consistent with the absence of spontaneous islet amyloidosis in mice. Several clinical and in vitro studies suggest that increased synthetic rates of IAPP predispose to IAPP-amyloidosis. In the present study, we sought to test the hypothesis that pharmacological induction of insulin resistance in a mouse transgenic (TG) for human IAPP would induce islet amyloid and beta-cell dysfunction. TG and non-transgenic (N-TG) control mice were treated with both rat growth hormone (12 micrograms/day) and dexamethasone (0.24 mg/day) (dex/GH) or received no treatment for 4 weeks, after which animals were killed to examine islet morphology. Treatment with dex/GH caused hyperglycemia (7.3 +/- 0.4 vs. 5.2 +/- 0.1 mmol/l, TG vs. N-TG, P < 0.001) associated with a decreased plasma insulin concentration (595 +/- 51 vs. 996 +/- 100 pmol/l, TG vs. N-TG, P < 0.05) in TG versus control mice. Islet amyloid was induced in treated TG mice but not in control mice. Islet amyloid was identified in both intra- and extracellular deposits, the former being associated with evidence of beta-cell degeneration. We conclude that dex/GH treatment in mice TG for human IAPP induces IAPP-derived islet amyloid, hyperglycemia, and islet dysfunction. The present model recapitulates the islet morphology and phenotype of type II diabetes.