No doubt. Genetics are important in obesity . A team of scientists led by researchers from MIT and the Harvard School of Public Health (USA) has identified a new mechanism responsible for the control of human metabolism. This discovery could help with the prevention and treatment of a disease that already affects more than 500 million people around the world . The study has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine .
Researchers have analyzed the cellular circuits involved in the association between obesity and genetics, finding the key point at which adipocytes or fat cells decide to burn or store fat. This metabolism switch explains that the FTO gene acts mainly in adipocyte progenitor cells in a way that is independent from the brain , which defines the genetic differences that affect the functioning of fat reserves in our body. As this “control room” works, we will be at greater or lesser risk of suffering from obesity.
To reach this conclusion, the scientists studied adipose tissue samples from a group of healthy European volunteers who carried the genetic version related to obesity risk and another control group with no link to this risk. Thus, they discovered how a very specific region was activated in the first group, located in two genes, Irx3 and Irx5 that acted as energy masters of ceremonies in a process known as thermogenesis.
“This new pathway controls thermogenesis in the most abundant reserves of white fat and its genetic association with obesity indicates that it affects the global energy balance in humans”, explains Manolis Kellis, leader of the study.
By changing a single letter in a DNA sequence, the scientists turned off the Irx3 and Irx5 genes , restoring the thermogenesis process and turning off the genes that store lipids or fats . These results “may allow genome editing as a therapeutic pathway for individuals carrying the risk allele, and the cellular circuits discovered could allow controlling the ‘metabolic master switch’ in both at-risk and non-at-risk individuals, and so on. counteracting the environment or lifestyle, factors that contribute to obesity, ”Kellis clarifies.
