Obesity and obesity-related health problems are major factors to international mortality, however the root causes are still not well understood. Extreme obesity results from a mix of unhealthy habits and a genetic predisposition called polygenic disorder, in which multiple genes are involved.
Researchers at Leipzig University Hospital and the Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity, and Vascular Research (HI-MAG) at Helmholtz Munich also desire to identify the rare cases of monogenic obesity.
Offered the discovery, the researchers recommend reevaluating the approaches used to diagnose clients with hereditary weight problems.
Leipzig researchers examine a new reason for severe weight problems.
Weight problems and obesity-related illnesses are major factors to international mortality, but the source are still not popular. Numerous factors contribute to the development and development of the disease, including genes. In many cases, extreme obesity results from a mix of unhealthy practices and a genetic predisposition called polygenic condition, in which numerous genes are involved.
Scientists at Leipzig University Hospital and the Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity, and Vascular Research (HI-MAG) at Helmholtz Munich also wish to determine the rare cases of monogenic weight problems. In these clients, flaws in a single gene are the cause of the illness. Those impacted frequently show a decreased feeling of satiety in early childhood and experience a continuous feeling of appetite.
While studying tissue samples from a woman with extreme obesity, the Leipzig researchers discovered that a specific gene, the agouti-signaling protein (ASIP) gene, was produced at high levels in cells where it is not usually present (e.g. in fat cells, leukocyte and neuronal cells).
Project head Antje Körner, professor of pediatric research and pediatrician said, “This discovery is a sort of missing out on piece of the puzzle in research study on monogenic human obesity. It is likewise evidence for the value of key molecular regulative mechanisms of energy balance and body weight through melanocortin 4 receptor neurons in people and offers us with a distinct chance to study these systems.”
The kind of mutation found in the existing research study escapes standard genetic screening algorithms, which suggests that it remains undetected in many afflicted patients. Thanks to the targeted screening of the Leipzig Childhood Obesity associate, Professor Körners team has identified 4 extra patients with the exact same mutation.
” Given this discovery, I believe we require to reassess the methods we use to determine patients with monogenic obesity. The ultimate objective of our research study is to move the findings from hereditary studies to future tailored treatment options for weight problems,” said Professor Matthias Blüher, director of HI-MAG and spokesperson of the CRC 1052 “Obesity Mechanisms” in the Faculty of Medicine.
Recommendation: “Aberrant expression of agouti signaling protein (ASIP) as a cause of monogenic serious childhood weight problems” by Elena Kempf, Kathrin Landgraf, Robert Stein, Martha Hanschkow, Anja Hilbert, Rami Abou Jamra, Paula Boczki, Gunda Herberth, Andreas Kühnapfel, Yu-Hua Tseng, Claudia Stäubert, Torsten Schöneberg, Peter Kühnen, N. William Rayner, Eleftheria Zeggini, Wieland Kiess, Matthias Blüher and Antje Körner, 19 December 2022, Nature Metabolism.DOI: 10.1038/ s42255-022-00703-9.
The research study was moneyed by the German Research Foundation and the German Diabetes Society.