In this paper (Naja et al 2025), the authors were looking fo…
In this paper (Naja et al 2025), the authors were looking for biomarkers of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance–the inability of the body to respond to insulin–is a hallmark of type 2 diabetes. Biomarkers are molecules that can be easily analyzed and used for diagnosing diseases. N-lactoyl-amino acids (N-Lac-AAs) are amino acids modified with a lactoyl group. They are metabolites (circulating products of normal metabolism). The authors proposed that N-Lac-AAs might have diagnostic potential, allowing physicians to quickly diagnose insulin resistance. They looked at three different N-Lac-AAs and compared their presence/concentration with known biomarkers of insulin resistance. Ignore the pink/red circles, but recognize that blue represents positive correlations and the darker blue, the more positive the correlation. This figure shows the strength of relationship between different N-Lac-AAs (columns) with the known biomarkers of insulin resistance (rows). Asterisks represent the degree of significance, or more simply, the strength of association. Which of the following is the best N-Lac-AA biomarker of insulin resistance according to this figure?
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