From stomach ache to depression: Our gut hurts and we feel miserable. Such disparate phenomena are mechanistically connected, but how? Cervenka et al. review the many pathways taken by dietary tryptophan as it is metabolized into kynurenines. These metabolites distribute into homeostatic networks that integrate diverse aspects of mammalian physiology. Depending on physiological context, kynurenines influence health and disease states ranging from intestinal conditions to inflammation to cancer progression. Further, they can mediate the effects of exercise, mood, and neuronal excitability and, ultimately, communicate with the microbiota. Science , this issue p. eaaf9794

Obesity induced in mice by high-fat feeding activates the protein kinase Cdk5 (cyclin-dependent kinase 5) in adipose tissues. This results in phosphorylation of the nuclear receptor PPARγ (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ), a dominant regulator of adipogenesis and fat cell gene expression, at serine 273. This modification of PPARγ does not alter its adipogenic capacity, but leads to dysregulation of a large number of genes whose expression is altered in obesity, including a reduction in the expression of the insulin-sensitizing adipokine, adiponectin. The phosphorylation of PPARγ by Cdk5 is blocked by anti-diabetic PPARγ ligands, such as rosiglitazone and MRL24. This inhibition works both in vivo and in vitro, and is completely independent of classical receptor transcriptional agonism. Similarly, inhibition of PPARγ phosphorylation in obese patients by rosiglitazone is very tightly associated with the anti-diabetic effects of this drug. All these findings strongly suggest that Cdk5-mediated phosphorylation of PPARγ may be involved in the pathogenesis of insulin-resistance, and present an opportunity for development of an improved generation of anti-diabetic drugs through PPARγ.