Without satiety Faulty messenger in the brain leads us into the overweight crisis

How misguided satiety nerves plunge the brain into crisis

The global overweight crisis is today at a record high and rising. Research groups are desperately looking for new insights and therapeutic intervention options to counteract this development. German researchers have now found a kind of switch in the brain, which controls the function of satiety and thus also the body weight.

Researchers from the Institute for Diabetes and Obesity (IDO) at Helmholtz Zentrum München identified a mechanism in the brain that controls body weight. Several studies have suggested the existence of this brain function for ten years. If the control of the newly discovered molecular switch is disturbed, there is no sense of satiety in those affected. The study was recently published in the renowned journal "Nature Metabolism".

A German research team recently found that a missing protein can cause saturation disorders. This can be a cause of morbid obesity and diabetes. (Image: Tatiana Shepeleva / fotolia.com)

The brain tells us when we are full

"Whether we are hungry or feel full, decides decisively in the brain," explains study author Dr. med. Alexandre Fisette in a press release on the research results. According to the study, two groups of nerve cells in the hypothalamic brain region use various messengers to control body weight and energy balance. The two groups create a sensitive interplay. One group animate the body for food intake, the other creates a feeling of satiety and thus prevent the body from an excess of nutrients. A disturbance of this balance could be the cause of obesity and diabetes.

A messenger regulates the delicate balance

In the current study, the researchers identified a messenger substance that plays the key role in this interplay. The so-called transcription factor Tbx3 controls important processes for the maintenance of energy and sugar metabolism. Transcription factors are proteins that, like a switch, ensure that certain genes are read or not. "Specifically, this means that without Tbx3, the nerve cells for satiety can not produce messenger substances," Dr. Carmelo Quarta, another author of the study.

Without Tbx3 the brain gets into an identity crisis

Both in fruit flies and in human nerve cells, the researchers were able to show how the absence of the protein Tbx3 leads to a kind of identity crisis of the saturation nerves. This could cause morbid obesity and obesity. "It has been reported for some time that people who lack the Tbx3 gene often suffer from obesity," adds study leader Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Matthias H. Tschöp. The current research explains for the first time the underlying mechanism and the underlying metabolic processes. The research team sees this process as a possible approach to remedies designed to rebalance cluttered metabolism. (Vb)