Mehmet Furkan Burak

• Doctor of Medicine
• Faculty Member at Harvard Medical School

Host metabolic fitness is a critical determinant of infectious disease outcomes. Obesity, aging, and other related metabolic disorders are recognized as high-risk disease modifiers for respiratory infections, including coronavirus infections, though the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Our study highlights fatty acid-binding protein 4 (FABP4),...

Host metabolic fitness is a critical determinant of infectious disease outcomes. In COVID-19, obesity and aging are major high-risk disease modifiers, although the underlying mechanism remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate that fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4), a critical regulator of metabolic dysfunction in these conditions, regulates SARS-Co...

Palmitoleic acid (POA), a nonessential, monounsaturated omega-7 fatty acid (C16:1n7), is a lipid hormone secreted from adipose tissue and has beneficial effects on distant organs, such as the liver and muscle. Interestingly, POA decreases lipogenesis in toxic storage sites such as the liver and muscle, and paradoxically increases lipogenesis in saf...

Fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) is a lipid chaperone secreted from adipocytes upon stimulation of lipolysis. Circulating FABP4 levels strongly correlate with obesity and metabolic pathologies in experimental models and humans. While adipocytes have been presumed to be the major source of hormonal FABP4, this question has not been addressed def...

Metastasis is one of the most challenging problems in cancer diagnosis and treatment, as causal factors have yet to be fully disentangled. Prediction of the metastatic status of breast cancer is important for informing treatment protocols and reducing mortality. However, the systems biology behind metastasis is complex and driven by a variety of in...

Objective: This study aimed to retrospectively analyze the 3-year findings of bacterial and fungal pathogens isolated from infections in patients with hematological malignancies. Methods: A retrospective analysis of 158 patients with hematological malignancies treated between January 2015 and December 2017 in Okmeydanı Training and Research Hospita...

(1) Background: Vascular surgery operations are hampered by high failure rates and frequent occurrence of peri-operative cardiovascular complications. In pre-clinical studies, pre-operative restriction of proteins and/or calories (PCR) has been shown to limit ischemia-reperfusion damage, slow intimal hyperplasia, and improve metabolic fitness. Howe...

Background Open vascular surgery interventions are not infrequently hampered by complication rates and durability. Preclinical surgical models show promising beneficial effects in modulating the host response to surgical injury via short-term dietary preconditioning. Here, we explore short-term protein–calorie restriction preconditioning in patient...

Background: Vascular surgery procedures, particularly when performed using open techniques, carry high morbidity and mortality rates. In preclinical surgical models, modulating the host response to surgical injury via short-term dietary preconditioning shows promise for clinical implementation. Here we explore short-term protein-calorie restriction...

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways with an increasing prevalence but limited treatment options. Although the pathogenesis is not fully understood, it has a major immunometabolic component including contribution of lipid mediators to airway inflammation. Interestingly, accumulating evidence implicates obesity as a critical risk...

Context Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) remains the cornerstone of management of prostate cancer (PCa). Previous studies have shown that men undergoing ADT develop insulin resistance and diabetes, but the mechanisms behind ADT-induced metabolic abnormalities remain unclear. Objective To evaluate the role of inflammatory cytokines and adipocyte...

The lipid chaperone aP2/FABP4 has been implicated in the pathology of many immunometabolic diseases, including diabetes in humans, but aP2 has not yet been targeted for therapeutic applications. aP2 is not only an intracellular protein but also an active adipokine that contributes to hyperglycemia by promoting hepatic gluconeogenesis and interferin...

Proper control of hepatic glucose production is central to whole-body glucose homeostasis, and its disruption plays a major role in diabetes. Here, we demonstrate that although established as an intracellular lipid chaperone, aP2 is in fact actively secreted from adipocytes to control liver glucose metabolism. Secretion of aP2 from adipocytes is re...

We would like to respond to Brosch et al. regarding our manuscript "Expression of the Splicing Factor Gene SFRS10 Is Reduced in Human Obesity and Contributes to Enhanced Lipogenesis" (Pihlajamäki et al., 2011b). Brosch performed RT-PCR in liver samples from 13 lean and 34 obese individuals, finding no differences in SFRS10 or LPIN1 expression. We w...

Alternative mRNA splicing provides transcript diversity and may contribute to human disease. We demonstrate that expression of several genes regulating RNA processing is decreased in both liver and skeletal muscle of obese humans. We evaluated a representative splicing factor, SFRS10, downregulated in both obese human liver and muscle and in high-f...