WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have discovered a variant of the beta-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (beta-MSH) gene that may play a role in obesity in children, according to the February issue of Cell Metabolism. The finding highlights a potential area for drug treatment for obesity, the authors say.
Beta-MSH, along with alpha-MSH, are products of the pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) gene and are ligands of the metabolism-controlling MC4R receptor. The melanocortin system has been marked as a potential target for weight control; however, most efforts have focused on alpha-MSH. Stephen O'Rahilly, M.D., from the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research in England, and colleagues screened the POMC gene in 538 patients with severe, early-onset obesity and found five unrelated individuals who had a unique mutation in the part of the gene that codes for beta-MSH.
This variant could not bind and activate MC4R, and children who carried it were hyperphagic and showed an enhanced rate of early linear growth. Obese children were also more likely to have relatives with this variant than normal-weight children.
Beta-MSH has largely been ignored in past studies because rodents do not make the hormone, but it has been shown to act as an appetite suppressant in these animals. "Beta-MSH is likely to be an important and physiologically relevant endogenous ligand for the human MC4R," the authors conclude.
Abstract
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