Recently scientist have discovered a potential obesity treatment by targeting a glucose-releasing hormone called asprosin that is involved in regulating appetite in mice. This hormone will normally home on the neurons that regulate appetite. In a recent study, Chopra and colleagues studied two people with Neonatal Progeroid Syndrome (NPS) and found that they normally have a lower food intake and an energy expenditure. The team also discovered that NPS patients are heterozygous for FBN1 1hich is a mutation at the end of a gene. They typically have reduced levels of the hormone asprosin. In this study, a mouse was generated with a heterozygous mutation that truncates FBN1 and is identical to one in an NPS patient.
The model mouse had less circulating asprosin and was very lean due to the decrease food intake compared to other wild-type mice. The mouse was fed a high fat diet for 6 months and did not become obese. Wild-type mice were under the same conditions and did become obese and glucose intolerant. In another experiment, an antibody was injected which binded and inactivated the asprosin which decreased body weight and feeding in obese mice. The team wants to continue testing their hypothesis in more experiments before studying with humans. This is an interesting finding since it can open up opportunities for new methods to help obesity and diabetes.
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