Protein may offer clue to obesity, diabetes

[Cycleon]

Protein may offer clue to obesity, diabetes - study
Fri Apr 19, 6:22 PM ET
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A protein that affects the body's ability to handle fat and sugar might offer a way to treat obesity and diabetes, if a way can be found to block it, scientists reported on Friday.


Mice genetically engineered to lack the protein can eat a high-fat diet and stay lean, the researchers report in this week's issue of the journal Developmental Cell.

If a way can be found to block this protein in humans, it may -- and the researchers stress the word may -- be a way to treat or prevent diabetes and obesity, they said.

"If you eat the same amount of food it will make you gain less weight," Dr. Benjamin Neel, of Harvard University and director of the cancer biology program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said in a telephone interview.

"I want it too," he joked.

The protein, called PTP1B for protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B, joins a list of proteins and enzymes that in mice are associated with obesity. Many different small biotech firms and large pharmaceutical companies are pursuing them as potential diet pills.

One-quarter of Americans are obese and 60 percent are overweight, so the market potential is considerable.

Neel and colleagues genetically engineered mice that lack the PTP1B protein. The protein acts both on the hormone leptin, which is secreted by fat cells and strongly linked to obesity, and on insulin , they found.

The mice that lacked PTP1B, even those missing just one of their two copies of the gene that controls production of the protein, were hypersensitive to insulin.

"What was unanticipated, however, was that the mice were surprisingly lean," Neel said.

It seems that not having the gene increases the body's sensitivity to insulin and leptin, meaning the two hormones work more efficiently in smaller amounts. The result was a revved-up metabolism.

MICE LOOKED LIKE HIGHLY TRAINED ATHLETES

"A PTP1B knockout mouse has some of the characteristics of a highly trained athlete to the extent that they have increased energy expenditure," Neel said.

He hopes to develop a drug -- hopefully a pill -- that could block the effects of the PTP1B protein in people.

Obese people have too much leptin. In normal amounts, leptin can reduce appetite, but it appears that years of overeating causes the body to stop responding to the hormone.

There is a similar effect in insulin resistance, which precedes diabetes, and in type-2 diabetes, which affects 15 million Americans.

Blocking PTP1B just might be able to reverse these two effects, Neel hopes.

Neel is so hopeful that he has joined the board of a company called Ceptyr, a small biotech headquartered in Bothell, Washington that hopes to capitalize on the kind of work he is doing.

In this study Neel's team worked with Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and Ceptyr works with other big drug companies, such as Eli Lilly and Co.

There are other proteins that may have similar effects, if they work in people as they do in mice. Last year a team at the Whitehead Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (news - web sites) in Boston identified one called adipocyte complement-related protein (Acrp30), made by fat cells.

A team at GlaxoSmithKline and Cambridge University in Britain are working on one called Uncoupling Protein 3 (UCP3) that increases mouse metabolism.

[Kaz]

good post!

now if this all takes off and it actually works and they start selling pills in the US first which one of you is going to be my "source"

[Tankass]

Damn I want some of this. Imagine eating whatever you wanted and not worrying about getting fat.

[gettinthere]

Sounds great, i just wish they would come up with something that wasn't a cure-all without any work at all. That is what makes us elite right? The fact that we don't mind eating certain foods and training so hard to look the way we do. I have mixed feelings about a drug with that potential.

[system admin]

awsome post cyc! You rock with info! Are you a paid employee?!! :-)

[Cycleon]

That does sound like a good idea!

[system admin]

Soon big boy..... very fucking soon! Hey could you send that to jason? This would be a good news letter post. Where the hell do you find these?!

[Uconish]

thats wild Eating whatever and not worrying about gaining any fat I hope i can get my hands on some of these that way i would have something to chase down all the TUNA and EGG WHITES i shovel down

[Ranger]

There is a new drug on the market for diabetics right now..." Starlix " it's actually in the class of secretagouges(sp)....I now have a script for it and am running it with GH in hopes of avoiding using extra slin...so far so good......This just adds to the point that Insulin is the most anabolic compound you can put in your body....

My God, if they come up with a pill that will reduce fat with no cardio....Heh heh heh...Don't know about you guys....But I'm game to give it a whirl...<wink>

Ranger

[six10ken]

THE AMAZING WORLD OF MODERN SCIENCE...
GENETICIST ARE ALSO ON TRACK TO ISOLATING THE GENES GOVERNING MUSCLE DEVELOPMENT.
SOON THERE MAY BE NO NEED FOR ANY AS.....SO I GUESS THE FURTURE IS LOOKING LEANER AND BIGGER THEN EVER.........

[R.I.E.N.G.]

Tankass- I know how it feels. I am thankful every day and remember not to take this gift for granted. However, you should strive to do the same... while i lack the ability to get fat which is a plus from one view, i also lack the ability to get even remotely big (naturally, that is). This is a gift which many large people take for granted. However i will try to refrain from rambling on about how good large people have it, because i do not know what it is like to be in their position, however please try to remember, that goes likewise for them.

[Mike]

Originally posted by Ranger
There is a new drug on the market for diabetics right now..." Starlix " it's actually in the class of secretagouges(sp)....I now have a script for it and am running it with GH in hopes of avoiding using extra slin...so far so good......This just adds to the point that Insulin is the most anabolic compound you can put in your body....

My God, if they come up with a pill that will reduce fat with no cardio....Heh heh heh...Don't know about you guys....But I'm game to give it a whirl...<wink>

Ranger

have a lot of experience/exposure in regards to starlix as well, from a clinical and first hand medical perspective, not bodybuilding (I believe you're either a diabetic or well informed about the details if I recall correctly Ranger) but if yourself or anyone else has questions about eh particulars feel free to contact

(good info cyc, printed this out)