Obesity can be treated by disabling one gene
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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The number of people suffering from obesity is growing every year, and this can threaten serious health problems.
Due to excessive food craving, lack of physical activity, and also a genetic predisposition, millions of people with excess weight risk to die from coronary heart disease, diabetes, atherosclerosis and other diseases provoked by obesity.
"Our body is designed in such a way as to store energy in the form of fat. In case you have to survive in difficult conditions, spare energy sources are activated. However, at the moment the situation looks like this: in developed countries, people do not experience food problems, eat well and move little. But everyone knows that not to gain weight, a person should spend as much energy as he gets with food, "says Professor Alexander Pfeiffer, head of the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Bonn.
Since many people like to eat deliciously and abundantly, and they do not feel like eating or just do physical exercises, the perfect way out of the situation seems to be the invention of some magic pill that could burn fat while we digest everything that is eaten and sit on the couch.
A group of scientists, headed by Professor Pfeiffer, managed to make the first step towards the realization of the dreams of all idlers and the glutton of the planet.
Science knows about three types of fat. White fat saves energy, due to which people gain weight, brown or brown - acts as a "burner" of white fat, while producing heat. In adults, this type of adipose tissue is located partly along the spine and on the back of the neck. And finally, the third type of fat is beige. It is produced by white fat cells and also burns energy.
Fat-burning brown cells could reduce fat deposits in white cells. But how do you turn white fat cells into beige? Scientists around the world are looking for a solution to this question.
Stimulating vasodilating phosphoprotein (VASP) inhibits the formation of beige and brown fatty tissues.
During research on mice, scientists blocked the gene VASP. The result is that the mice lose weight and build up their muscles.
According to experts, the data of these studies can be used to further study the possibility of converting harmful fat into a useful one. However, this will take a lot of time, because experiments were conducted on mice and it is not known how successful they will be in relation to people.
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