Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 1, 1994 TAG: 9412010110
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
In a development compared to the discovery of insulin's role in diabetes, scientists announced Wednesday they have found a gene that appears to play a critical part in the brain's ability to control fat and hunger.
The finding was immediately hailed by other researchers as pointing to a day when drugs may correct imbalances that cause some people to be hounded by food cravings and stubborn bulges in the wrong places while others remain lean.
In addition to the gene, researchers at Rockefeller University said they have identified two separate mutations that damage it and lead to obesity.
The gene was isolated from two strains of genetically obese mice, said Dr. Jeffrey M. Friedman, a molecular biologist at the New York university. A nearly identical human gene also has been identified, Friedman said.
Discovery of ``ob,'' as the new obese gene is being called, could open the door to a mysterious system of signals that scientists think enable the brain to monitor and control hunger and metabolism on the basis of how much fat an animal or human has stored.
The gene appears to cause fat tissue to secrete a protein, which circulates through the bloodstream and eventually finds its way to a part of the brain that controls hunger and metabolism, Friedman said in a telephone interview.
There, the protein is thought to alert nerve cells to the presence elsewhere in the body of stored fat, enabling the brain to regulate eating behavior and fat storage.
``This is a very major discovery,'' said Timothy J. Rink, president of Amylin Pharmaceuticals in San Diego. ``I believe this gene could very well be the overriding controller of appetite and obesity.''
A protein that the ob gene produces could be a long-sought ``fat-derived satiety factor'' that researchers believe tells the brain that the body is obese and should start eating less and burning more fuel, Rink said. He added that ``it is now a very plausible idea that we will one day correct deficiencies in this substance by adding a little bit to get the body back in balance.''
Although that day is at least 10 years away, he said, the gene ``is almost as important in obesity as the discovery of insulin was in diabetes.''
The research was described in the scientific journal Nature.
``This is a very important paper,'' said Dr. Arthur Frank, a physician who directs the Obesity Management Program at George Washington University. ``We have known for decades that there is something that goes from the fat tissue to the brain and tells the brain how big the body's fat stores are.''
by CNB