New mechanisms for food intake and weight control may help diet to lose weight

A reporter from China Science Daily learned from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that the team of John Speakman , a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a researcher at the Institute, discovered that mTOR signaling mediates the regulation of low-protein foods on the food intake and body weight of mice.

The human diet mainly includes three macronutrients: protein, fat and carbohydrates.

In recent years, the focus of academic research has turned to protein.

In previous studies, John Speakman's team revealed that fat in food is the "prime culprit" that causes obesity in mice, and found that low-protein content (5%) food did not cause food intake and weight gain.

Interestingly, although transcriptome data analysis showed that 1% low-protein treatment caused the hunger pathway in the hypothalamus of mice to be activated, the food intake did not increase, and when the normal protein content food was subsequently re-fed, there was no image.

To further verify this hypothesis, the researchers targeted activation of the mTOR signaling pathway in the hypothalamus by intraventricular injection, confirming that the phenotype of low protein causing lower body fat partly depends on the mTOR signaling pathway, and has nothing to do with the Fgf21, eIF2a and TRPML1 signaling pathways.

John Speakman said that the study puts forward a possibility that drugs can be used to suppress mTOR signals, thereby reducing the hunger and excessive appetite caused by food restriction and weight loss.

Related paper information: org/10.