Clinical Interests
Dr. Hruz has clinical interest in a wide range of endocrine disorders, with a special interest in diabetes mellitus. Dr. Hruz's research interests include intermediary carbohydrate metabolism, glucose transporter structure and function and mechanism of insulin action. Currently, the mechanism(s) by which HIV protease inhibitors cause serious adverse metabolic effects including peripheral lipoatrophy, visceral adiposity, hypertriglyceridemia, and insulin resistance are being investigated. The laboratory has discovered that HIV protease inhibitors selectively and reversibly inhibit the GLUT4 facilitative glucose transporter. Ongoing studies are being directed toward elucidating the selectivity of these drugs in blocking the activity of each of the known facilitative glucose transport proteins. The tertiary structure of the facilitative glucose transporters is also being investigated using state-of-the-art biophysical approaches.