Will vaccination help against obesity?
A vaccine against obesity has been createdKirill Stasevich, Compulenta
A vaccine developed using ghrelin causes the immune system to attack this food hormone, which leads to a prolonged decrease in appetite and an increase in the level of metabolism.
Scientists from the University of Porto (Portugal) managed to create a vaccine against obesity. As one of the authors of the study, Mariana Monteiro, reported at the 93rd annual congress of the Endocrinological Society, the drug promotes the production of antibodies to the hormone ghrelin, which is listed as the main culprits for the appearance of excess weight.
Ghrelin is produced in the hypothalamus and stomach; it controls eating behavior in general: it sharpens sensitivity to edible odors, regulates appetite, determines the degree of saturation, controls energy consumption, etc. If ghrelin is in excess, then a person or animal begins to eat a lot and at the same time spend little, which leads to the appearance of extra pounds.
A diagram from the article by Wiedmer et al. Ghrelin, obesity and diabetes //
Nature Clinical Practice Endocrinology & Metabolism (2007) 3, 705-712 – VM
The novelty of the approach of Portuguese specialists is to force the body itself to reduce the level of ghrelin. To do this, a modified non-infectious virus was created, which carried the molecules of this hormone as a "cargo". The virus did not multiply and was not dangerous, but at the same time successfully stimulated the immune response of the body. And due to the fact that it also contained ghrelin molecules, antibodies were produced not only for viral proteins, but also for the food hormone.
The resulting vaccine was administered to mice with and without obesity. In both of them, antibodies against this hormone appeared in large quantities in the blood, calorie burning increased, and all animals began to eat less — compared to the control group, which was given a normal saline solution instead of a vaccine. A day after the first vaccination, obese mice overcame only 82% of the amount of food they ate without the vaccine, and after the third and last injection, "fat" rodents ate half as much as the overweight group.
The effect of the vaccine lasted two months. If we consider that the normal average life expectancy in mice is 18 months, then in terms of the human century, this corresponds to four years.
The report emphasized that no toxic effects were observed for the vaccine. As an additional beneficial property of the anti-grelin vaccine, scientists noted a decrease in the level of neuropeptide Y, which is considered one of the main appetite enhancers acting directly on the central nervous system. Thus, the vaccine acts on several signaling pathways at once, preventing unnecessary absorption of food and stimulating the burning of accumulated calories. And although clinical trials are still far away, distributors of all kinds of "anti-fat" products and techniques should think hard about changing their business.
Prepared based on the materials of NewsWise: Anti-Obesity Vaccine Reduces Food Consumption In Animals.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru07.06.2011