Here’s how unhealthy diets stop the brain to say NO to food

Obesity is frequently characterized by leptin resistance, which means that the body is unable to "read" the signals sent by the hormone that typically curbs appetite.

Editorial Team | Updated: August 25, 2018 3:00 pm

When it comes to eating habit, people with obesity often encounter difficulties as their bodies do not know when they are hungry and when they are not. So, the researchers tried to find out why this happens. Normally, when we feel hungry, we understand that it is time for a meal. And when we feel full, we know it’s time to put the plate in the wash basin. These states of satiety and hunger occur because of the brain’s to decode 2 key hormones, hunger hormone (ghrelin) and energy expenditure (leptin). These hormones get released when it’s time to stop eating and start burning those calories.

According to the Medical News Today report, researchers point out that obesity is frequently characterized by leptin resistance, which means that the body is unable to “read” the signals sent by the hormone that typically curbs appetite. But it remained unclear that how leptin resistance develops, and which elements in the leptin-brain circuitry are affected.

A new study from the University of California, San Diego and a number of international research institutions has revealed that high-fat diets may impair the brain’s capacity to “sense” leptin, therefore leading to leptin resistance. The researchers have published their findings in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The study author Rafi Mazor reportedly said, “Our hypothesis was that an enzyme breaking down proteins into amino acids and polypeptides can cleave membrane receptors and lead to dysfunctional activity.” Mazor also added, “In the future, we will try to find out why proteases are activated, what is activating them, and how to stop it,” adding, “There is still a lot of work to do to better understand receptor cleaving and the loss of cell function while on a high-fat diet.”

He also said that when they opened a new field of study for metabolic disease. They need to ask what other pathways, in addition to leptin and its receptors, undergo a similar destructive process and what the consequences might be.

Eventually, the scientists aim to develop such an inhibitor themselves and in the meantime, they are planning to conduct a study with human participants, so as to verify whether the same leptin-blocking mechanism applies.

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Published: August 25, 2018 1:42 pm | Updated:August 25, 2018 3:00 pm

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