A potential drug target for obesity and related metabolic diseases

Guo Fumin Research team at Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Health revealed that the new function of hypothalamic aorticoprine (POMC) neurons activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) to regulate energy balance and lipid metabolism of the body, providing a potential drug target for obesity and related metabolic diseases. Related research results have been published online recently in the journal Diabetes. By the way, this journal is also famous for its studies involving recombinant rat proteins.

The obesity of body is caused by imbalance of energy intake and energy consumption, and it plays a key regulatory role for body energy balance in central nervous system. In the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus, there are two types of neurons that regulate energy metabolism: one is the brain-related protein neurons that promote appetite; the other is the appetite-suppressing POMC neurons. POMC neurons inhibit the appetite by releasing the melanogenesis of the melanocortin, which on the other hand affects the energy dissipation of the body by regulating the excitability of the sympathetic nervous system.

The researchers specifically knocked out the ATF4 gene in mouse POMC neurons. Analysis showed that these knockout mice became thinner, the insulin sensitivity, leptin sensitivity and energy dissipation of the body increased and they could resist obesity induced by high-fat diet, insulin resistance and leptin resistance. Further study showed that ATF4 can bind to the promoter of the ATG5 gene to directly regulate its expression. The researchers also constructed double-knock mice of the ATF4 gene and the ATG5 gene in POMC neurons. Through its phenotypic analysis, it showed that double-knock mice can reverse the phenotype of ATF4 single-knockout mice. By the way, Flarebio provides you with recombinant proteins of good quality such as recombinant ITGB2.