Hunger Control Molecule
Reserachers in Australia succeed in finding the right Molecule that controlling ones Hunger. If it is found to be correct, this finding will have tremendeous impact on general health. This could be used to control ones appetite.
This is the Molecule, causing the appetite for those just can’t help having a bite every now and then and then worry about the extra weight that the bite brings along? Now, here is an explanation: There’s a molecule that makes you hungry. On the other hand, it’s the same molecule that also causes lack of hunger in some, resulting in weight loss.
The good news is, the molecule that controls you, can also be controlled, provided, some researchers in Australia succeed in their mission.
Researchers from St Vincent’s hospital, the University of South Wales and the Garvan Institute, started their study among some cancer patients who showed lack of appetite and found that those patients have high levels of a molecule known as MIC-1.
When they gave an antidote to the molecule to mice with no appetite, they started eating again and putting on weight.
Professor Herbert Hertzog from the Garvan Institute says the effects were very dramatic.
Professor Sam Breit from the Centre for Immunology at St Vincent’s hospital says the reverse happened with overweight mice, when they were given MIC-1, they lost weight.
Professor Breit started the research, by cloning the MIC-1 gene.
He discovered that blood levels of MIC-1 were high in many patients with advanced cancers and correlated this with extreme weight loss seen in these patients.
In collaboration with Professor Hertzog from the Garvan Institute, the team analysed the effect of this molecule on metabolism and the brain control of appetite.
Dr Herbert Hertzog says the research is still in its early stages but the results so far suggest the discovery may provide the basis of a treatment for severe obesity.
There are no indications the treatment causes any side effects, but Professor Breit says that further studies have yet to done.
The next step will be to run human clinical trials to see if the dramatic results in mice can be replicated in humans.
Once the scientists have secured commercial backing for the discovery, clinical trials could start in as little as three years.
The team hopes that one day some patients with severely advanced cancer can be prevented from suffering malnutrition.
The research is published in the latest edition of Nature Medicine.
Note:Read our article lack of sleep can get you fat to control your weight gain.