Ion channel necessary for hormone and anti-obesity drug to suppress eating identified
Ion channels are tunnel-shaped passageways on the surface of neurons through which charged particles, or ions, can travel in and out of the cell. A deeper understanding of this brain-metabolism relationship could someday lead to new, better targeted treatments for obesity or diabetes, said lead author Dr. Kevin Williams, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern and senior author of the study, published recently in Cell Reports . "We found that an ion channel made up of TrpC5 (transient receptor potential cation 5) protein subunits is required for the proper regulation of basal metabolism and body weight," Dr. Williams said. In the mouse study, loss of TrpC5 caused types of nerve cells in the brain called Pomc neurons to become unresponsive to leptin or lorcaserin, resulting in increased body weight over time. The normally beneficial effect of lorcaserin on blood-sugar levels was also lost in mice deficient for TrpC5, the study showed. "As r...