Jun 18 2009
Genetic Weight Loss: Neuronal PTP1B and Body Weight Regulation
You may think that Neuronal PTP1B sounds like a new strain of flu or perhaps a part that is supposed to go on the next space shuttle, but this is actually something that you have in your body. Neuronal PTP1B is a gene that is supposed to help regulate cell growth and insulin. If this gene could be inhibited or limited in the body, it could in turn slow down insulin production. This would result in less glucose being produced in the body and in turn would help to stabilize blood sugar levels.
Inhibition of Neuronal PTP1B may be able to help people to lose weight, particularly those with insulin resistance . People with insulin resistance actually make a lot of insulin, but the body has stopped responding to it. What this means is that the body continues to produce insulin, even when it is not needed. Since insulin triggers the body to store energy as fat, insulin resistance can lead to a person gaining weight very easily as well as making weight loss very difficult.
Research has been done and is on-going to study whether inhibitors that could block PTP1B would aid people in their efforts to lose weight. Inhibition of Neuronal PTP1B could be a step, in the future, that could be used to treat both obesity and those with Type 2 Diabetes and insulin resistance. That is the hope, anyway. There have been substantial road blocks in research either reaching the gene or inhibiting it correctly. A molecule called Trodusquemine (MSI-1436) that has found to inhibit PTP1B has been shown to help with appetite suppression (or rather, lower intake of food), weight loss, and can increase insulin sensitivity in obese animal subjects. If this works for humans, it could be the breakthrough for which some have been waiting.
This new field of genetic weight loss may be setting the path for future weight loss medications. Modifying the way the body uses food energy and regulates insulin by the inhibition of genes may not be set in stone just yet, but research is promising. Those people who have problems with weight may be welcome in clinical trials for this, if these have not yet begun. It will be a treatment for those who are obese (a BMI > 30) or have type 2 diabetes.
Related Articles:
Foods that Stabilize Blood Sugar
Diabetes and Diet
Metabolic Syndrome
