Deleting the receptor, not the protein ghrelin itself, turns up the body's fat-burning thermostat, giving aging mice an exothermic boost toward a svelte physique, researchers reported at the American Society of Cell Biology's 50th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.Hope is not an action plan.
The protein's receptor, growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHS-R), might make a better target than ghrelin for treating obesity, according to Yuxiang Sun, M.D., Ph.D., of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX...
The 1999 discovery of ghrelin's role in appetite and energy balance ignited hopes that it was the body's long-sought hunger thermostat. Ghrelin remains the only circulating peptide known to stimulate appetite and promote obesity in both humans and rodents, but it also plays other roles in regulating growth and metabolism.
"All this shows the complexity of ghrelin and its signaling pathway, and suggests the existence of additional unidentified regulators mediating the effect of ghrelin and/or GHS-R," said Sun.
Action plans are found here.
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