New human virus tied to obesity
By Ben Harder
From San Diego, at Nutrition Week
Researchers have identified the second member of a class of human viruses that may increase people’s susceptibility to obesity. Previous studies have shown that people and lab animals infected with a virus known as human adenovirus-36, or Ad-36, are more likely to be obese than are uninfected individuals. A new study finds that a closely related adenovirus from people causes excess fat to accumulate in chickens infected with the virus.