Leptin and Amylin Agonism: a Hope for Diet-induced Obesity

davidd submitted, created time 7 months 2 weeks (www.pnas.org)

Body weight is regulated by complex neurohormonal interactions between endocrine signals of long-term adiposity (e.g., leptin, a hypothalamic signal) and short-term satiety (e.g., amylin, a hindbrain signal). Leptin has been placed too much hope on weight loss. It became a failure for weight loss in non-leptin-deficient, diet-induced obese (DIO) rodents and humans. Today, we have some good news for for the obese. This study reports that concurrent peripheral administration of amylin and leptin elicits synergistic, fat-specific weight loss in leptin-resistant, diet-induced obese rats.

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: endocrinology food appetite hypothalamus Agonism Amylin Leptin obesity

Eating disorders linked to narcolepsy

DanyC submitted, created time 10 months 3 days (www.upi.com)

Excessive day sleepiness/sleep paralysis -- experience several symptoms of eating disorders, a Dutch study says.
we will clear after know that from this news: narcolepsy is not just a sleeping disorder, but a hypothalamic disease with a much broader symptom profile

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Brain electrode therapy designed for obseity found to improve memory; will be tried on Alzheimer's patients

jane2007 submitted, created time 11 months 1 week (www.nature.com)

Memory-prompting abilities of brain stimulation discovered by accident. Electrodes implanted into the brain of a patient undergoing an experimental treatment for obesity have surprisingly improved his memory skills. It will suppress appetite too.

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: deep-brain stimulation memory electrodes electrode therapy hypothalamus neurology obesity Alzheimer's

Modern brains have an ancient core

BIOBOSS submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.embl.org)

Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory now reveal that the hypothalamus and its hormones are not purely vertebrate inventions, but have their evolutionary roots in marine, worm-like ancestors. In this week's issue of the journal Cell they report that hormone-secreting brain centres are much older than expected and likely evolved from multifunctional cells of the last common ancestor of vertebrates, flies and worms.

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Antisense Oligodeoxynucleotides for Estrogen Receptor-bold italic beta and alpha Attenuate Estradiol's Modulation of Affective and Sexual Behavior, Respectively

Luneetty submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.nature.com)

Estradiol (E2) modulates affective and socio-sexual behavior of female rodents. E2's functional effects may involve actions through alpha and beta isoforms of estrogen receptor (ERs). The importance of E2's actions at these isoforms for anxiety (open field, elevated plus maze), depression (forced swim test), and sexual behavior (lordosis) was investigated using an antisense oligonucleotide (AS-ODN) strategy.ERbeta and ERalpha may be required for E2's modulation of affective and sexual behavior, respectively.

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Actin Filaments Mediate Mechanical Gating during Osmosensory Transduction in Rat Supraoptic Nucleus Neurons

medal submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.jneurosci.org)

"Osmosensory transduction is a bidirectional process displayed by neurons involved in the control of thirst and antidiuretic hormone release, and is therefore crucial for body fluid homeostasis. Although this mechanism is known to involve the activation of nonselective cation channels during hypertonicity-evoked shrinking, and the inhibition of these channels during hypotonicity-evoked swelling, the basis for this regulation is unknown."

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Erectile Dysfunction in Diabetes Is Due to Selective Defect in The Brain

BIOBOSS submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (www.eurekalert.org)

A new study sheds additional light on how erectile dysfunction (ED) interacts with diabetes. The study is another step in uncovering the link between the two disorders, and may lead to improved efficacy in treatments.

2 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: Sexual dysfunction erectile dysfunction diabet paraventricular nucleus hypothalamus