In a new study from the University of Virginia, researchers found 14 genes that can cause weight gain and three that can prevent it.
The findings pave the way for treatments to combat a health problem that affects more than 40% of American adults.
Obesity has become an epidemic, driven in large part by high-calorie diets laden with sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. Increasingly sedentary lifestyles play a big part as well.
But genes play an important role too, regulating fat storage and affecting how well our bodies burn food as fuel.
Genomicists have identified hundreds of genes associated with obesity—meaning the genes are more or less prevalent in people who are obese than in people with a healthy weight.
In the study, the team turned to humble worms known as C. elegans. These tiny worms like to live in rotting vegetation and enjoy feasting on microbes.
However, they share more than 70% of our genes, and like people, they become obese if they are fed excessive amounts of sugar.
The team used the worms to screen 293 genes linked to obesity in people, with the goal of defining which of the genes were actually causing or preventing obesity.
They did this by developing a worm model of obesity, feeding some a regular diet and some a high-fructose diet.
The researchers found 14 genes that cause obesity and three that help prevent it. Furthermore, they found that blocking the action of the three genes led to them living longer and having a better neuro-locomotory function.
Those are exactly the type of benefits drug developers would hope to obtain from anti-obesity medicines.
The team says these results (plus the fact that the genes under study were chosen because they were associated with obesity in humans) bode well that the results will hold true in people as well.
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The study is published in the journal PLOS Genetics. One author of the study is Eyleen O’Rourke.
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