Scientists have reveled how a gene long associated with obesity makes people fat by triggering increased hunger, opening up potential new ways to fight a growing global health problem. A common variation in the FTO gene affects one in six of the population, making them 70 percent more likely to become obese- but until now experts did not know why.
Using a series of tests, a British -led research team said they had found that people with the variation not only had higher levels of the 'hunger hormone' ghrelin in their blood but also increased sensitivity to the chemicals in their brains. "It's a double hit." said Rachel Batterham from University College, London, who led the study, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation today. The discovery follows the studies of blood samples from the people after meals, combined with functional magnetic resonance imaging of volunteers' brains and cell-based studies looking at ghrelin production at a molecular level.
Batterham said the work provided new insights and possible new leads for treatment, since some experimental drugs are known to suppress ghrelin and could be particularly effective if targeted at patients with the obesity-risk variant of the gene. Previous research has also shown that ghrelin can be reduced by eating a high- protein diet.At least 2.8 millions adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese and more than 40 million children under the age of five were overweight in 2011, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
So, developing effective obesity drugs has been a challenge for drugmakers, although some new medicines are now coming through.
Using a series of tests, a British -led research team said they had found that people with the variation not only had higher levels of the 'hunger hormone' ghrelin in their blood but also increased sensitivity to the chemicals in their brains. "It's a double hit." said Rachel Batterham from University College, London, who led the study, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation today. The discovery follows the studies of blood samples from the people after meals, combined with functional magnetic resonance imaging of volunteers' brains and cell-based studies looking at ghrelin production at a molecular level.
Batterham said the work provided new insights and possible new leads for treatment, since some experimental drugs are known to suppress ghrelin and could be particularly effective if targeted at patients with the obesity-risk variant of the gene. Previous research has also shown that ghrelin can be reduced by eating a high- protein diet.At least 2.8 millions adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese and more than 40 million children under the age of five were overweight in 2011, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
So, developing effective obesity drugs has been a challenge for drugmakers, although some new medicines are now coming through.
3 comments:
Obesity gene variant that increases a person's obesity risk by 30 to 40 per cent is the strongest genetic predictor of body weight discovered in humans
Nice information. Thanks for sharing such an amazing article. For Obesity Treatment visit Best Obesity Clinic in Hyderabad.
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