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Novel drug targets for weight reduction and insulin resistance

详细技术说明

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*Abstract

BackgroundLeptin is an adipocyte hormone that plays critical roles in the regulation of body weight and energy-intake. Deficiency in leptin or leptin receptors leads to hyperphagia, gross obesity, diabetes, and sterility in both rodents and humans. However, in most cases of human obesity, plasma leptin concentrations are much higher than those in the lean subjects, and obese subjects in general have higher levels of energy-intake than the lean controls even after the correction of their body weight. These observations raise the issue of why high concentrations of leptin fail to suppress food-intake and to reduce adiposity and body weight in obesity.TechnologyInvestigators at the University of Pittsburgh have identified one of the serum leptin interacting proteins (SLIPs). Since leptin can directly stimulate expression of this protein, these results point to an important attenuating factor of leptin functions that rise together with adiposity, which in turn allows continued accumulation of fat. Investigators believe that this discovery will present multiple novel and easily achievable pharmacological intervention targets to design anti-obesity drugs. Specifically, with the modern molecular and cellular approaches, they can design drugs to interfere or weaken the direct interaction with leptin, which will liberate the weight-reducing actions of leptin.Application* Potential drug target to restore the the weight-reducing and appetite-suppressing effects of leptin* Alleviate insulin resistance and diabetesAdvantages*The discovery of the novel functions of C-reactive protein reveals a primary cause of leptin resistance in obesity.

*Principal Investigation

Name: Allan Zhao

Department: Med-Cell Biology & Physiology

国家/地区

美国