ReviewMedical hypotheses2008
The planetary biology of ascorbate and uric acid and their relationship with the epidemic of obesity and cardiovascular disease.
Review in Medical hypotheses, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 83 citations in OpenAlex.
- Influence of serum uric acid levels on prognosis and survival in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a meta-analysis.Journal of neurology · 2014Pooled it
- Dissociation between urate and blood pressure in mice and in people with early Parkinson's disease.EBioMedicine · 2018Trial
- SLC52A1 is a neofunctionalized primate urate transporter enabling intestinal urate secretion.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2026Article
- Genomic insertion of ancestral uricase into human liver cells to determine metabolic consequences of pseudogenization.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Salivary and GCF Vitamin C Levels: Implications for Local and Systemic Periodontal Defense.International journal of dentistry · 2025Article
- Beneficial and Detrimental Effects of Uric Acid on Alzheimer's Disease.Current neuropharmacology · 2025Review
- Phylogenetic Articulation of Uric Acid Evolution in Mammals and How It Informs a Therapeutic Uricase.Molecular biology and evolution · 2022Article
- Hyperuricemia-induced endothelial insulin resistance: the nitric oxide connection.Pflugers Archiv : European journal of physiology · 2022Review
- Vitamin C deficiency reveals developmental differences between neonatal and adult hematopoiesis.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of the correlation between hyperuricemia and thyroid nodules in adults.Gland surgery · 2021Article
- CRISPR-Cas9-mediated reactivation of the uricase pseudogene in human cells prevents acute hyperuricemia.Molecular therapy. Nucleic acids · 2021Article
- The role of thrifty genes in the origin of alcoholism: A narrative review and hypothesis.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2021Review
- An IDH1-vitamin C crosstalk drives human erythroid development by inhibiting pro-oxidant mitochondrial metabolism.Cell reports · 2021Article
- Association between serum urate and CSF markers of Alzheimer's disease pathology in a population-based sample of 70-year-olds.Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2021Article
- Effects of uric acid dysregulation on the kidney.American journal of physiology. Renal physiology · 2020Article
- Lack of Associations between Elevated Serum Uric Acid and Components of Metabolic Syndrome Such as Hypertension, Dyslipidemia, and T2DM in Overweight and Obese Chinese Adults.Journal of diabetes research · 2019Article
- Gout and Metabolic Syndrome: a Tangled Web.Current rheumatology reports · 2017Review
- The prevalence of thyroid nodules in northwest China and its correlation with metabolic parameters and uric acid.Oncotarget · 2017Article
- Uric acid-dependent inhibition of AMP kinase induces hepatic glucose production in diabetes and starvation: evolutionary implications of the uricase loss in hominids.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2014Article
- Evolutionary history and metabolic insights of ancient mammalian uricases.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Humans have relatively low plasma ascorbate levels and high serum uric acid levels compared to most mammals due to the presence of genetic mutations in l-gulonolactone oxidase and uricase, respectively. We review the major hypotheses for why these mutations may have occurred. In particular, we suggest that both mutations may have provided a survival advantage to early primates by helping maintain blood pressure during periods of dietary change and environmental stress. We further propose that these mutations have the inadvertent disadvantage of increasing our risk for hypertension and cardiovascular disease in today's society characterized by Western diet and increasing physical inactivity. Finally, we suggest that a "planetary biology" approach in which genetic changes are analyzed in relation to their biological action and historical context may provide the ideal approach towards understanding the biology of the past, present and future.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.