Whether a person becomes overweight is not just down to their genes. In a study, Swiss researchers have shown that micro-RNA molecules are also key to regulating weight. This knowledge could be used in the future for therapies against obesity.
Heredity also determines how overweight someone is or not. Researchers have already identified around a hundred genes and gene variants that are partly responsible for excess weight. However, these genes and gene variants only explain just under half of hereditary obesity. Factors responsible for the other half are part of the genetic material but are not classic genes. Scientists at ETH Zurich have now found another non-classical genetic risk factor for hereditary obesity: a micro-RNA molecule called micro-RNA 7. The researchers bred mice that had micro-RNA 7 in certain nerve cells of the hypothalamus is missing. These animals exhibited a pathologically increased appetite – and became obese. A connection was also found in humans: British researchers evaluated a genome and health database that includes 500,000 people.
Also therapies for Alzheimer’s
Those with genetic variations on the chromosomes around the blueprint for micro-RNA 7 were larger than average and heavy. This is because the said nerve cells of those affected produce less micro-RNA 7 . Theoretically, the new knowledge could also be used in medicine. One day, therapies could be developed for people whose hypothalamus produces too little microRNA 7 and who are therefore obese. However, the researchers assume that these relatively young RNA therapies will first be developed for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, with therapies for metabolic diseases likely to follow later.
Source: Nachrichten
