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Brain's Weight Switch Found: May Let Us Eat What We Want, Finally (neurosciencenews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by will_a113@lemmy.ml to c/science@beehaw.org

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A new discovery reveals that astrocytes, star-shaped cells in the brain, play a key role in regulating fat metabolism and obesity. These cells act on a cluster of neurons, known as the GABRA5 cluster, effectively acting as a “switch” for weight regulation.

The MAO-B enzyme in these astrocytes was identified as a target for obesity treatment, influencing GABA secretion and thus weight regulation.

KDS2010, a selective and reversible MAO-B inhibitor, successfully led to weight loss in obese mice without impacting their food intake, even while consuming a high-fat diet, and is now in Phase 1 clinical trials.

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[-] Centillionaire@kbin.social 22 points 1 year ago

Or how about regulate the sugar and salt content in foods? No? More magic diet medications. Got it.

[-] storksforlegs@beehaw.org 14 points 1 year ago

The problem with regulating unhealthy food is that it is likely to jack up the price of the only affordable option for a lot of people. Maybe something like subsidizing and lowering cost of healthier foods to make them more affordable instead would be good.

[-] deo@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago

There's also a time component. Food can be quick, cheap, or healthy: but you can only choose two (at most). If people have to work for too many hours for shit pay, "unhealthy" becomes an undeniable option.

[-] Sodis@feddit.de 9 points 1 year ago

But that is only because of the current market landscape. Healthy food can also be packaged microwave ready and still be cheap. Most of the companies doing that just market it as healthy and charge a higher price for it (because people will still pay it).