Chen Liu, Ph.D.
DALLAS – July 11, 2022 – Triptans, a regularly prescribed elegance of migraine medication, can be helpful in treating weight problems, a brand new learn about via scientists at UT Southwestern suggests. In research on overweight mice, a day-to-day dose of a triptan led animals to consume much less meals and drop some pounds over the process a month, the staff reported within the Magazine of Experimental Medication.
“We’ve proven that there’s actual attainable to repurpose those medication, which might be already identified to be protected, for urge for food suppression and weight reduction,” mentioned learn about chief Chen Liu, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Inner Medication and Neuroscience and an investigator within the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Mind Institute.
Weight problems impacts greater than 41% of all adults within the U.S. and will increase the danger of middle illness, stroke, diabetes, and likely varieties of most cancers. Maximum remedies for weight problems focal point on consuming behavior and bodily task.
Scientists have lengthy identified that serotonin, a chemical messenger discovered during the mind and frame, performs a key function in urge for food. Alternatively, there are 15 other serotonin receptors – molecules that sense serotonin and sign for cells to modify their conduct in reaction. Researchers have struggled to know the function of each and every serotonin receptor in urge for food, and former medication – together with fen-phen and lorcaserin (Belviq) – that focused sure particular person receptors had been withdrawn from the marketplace because of unwanted effects.
Triptans, which might be used to regard acute migraines and cluster complications, paintings via focused on a special receptor – the serotonin 1B receptor (Htr1b) – that had no longer prior to now been smartly studied within the context of urge for food and weight reduction, mentioned Dr. Liu.
For the brand new learn about, the researchers examined six prescription triptans in overweight mice that had been fed a high-fat nutrition for seven weeks. Mice fed two of those medication ate about the same quantity, however mice fed the opposite 4 ate much less. After 24 days, mice given a day-to-day dose of the drug frovatriptan misplaced, on reasonable, 3.6% in their frame weight, whilst mice no longer given a triptan received a mean of five.1% in their frame weight. Dr. Liu and his colleagues noticed an identical effects after they implanted gadgets into the animals that gave them a gentle dose of frovatriptan for twenty-four days.
“We discovered that those medication, and one specifically, can decrease frame weight and enhance glucose metabolism in not up to a month, which is lovely spectacular,” mentioned Dr. Liu.
Since triptans are usually prescribed for temporary use all over migraines, Dr. Liu suspects that sufferers shouldn’t have spotted the longer-term affects on urge for food and weight prior to now.
To decide precisely how frovatriptan affects meals consumption and weight, the researchers engineered mice to lack both Htr1b or Htr2c, the serotonin receptor focused via fen-phen and lorcaserin. In mice with out Htr1b, frovatriptan not may just lower urge for food or motive weight reduction, whilst reducing out Htr2c had no impact. This showed that the drug labored via focused on the serotonin 1B receptor.
“This discovering may well be necessary for drug building,” mentioned Dr. Liu. “We no longer handiest make clear the possible to repurpose current triptans but in addition introduced consideration to Htr1b as a candidate to regard weight problems and keep an eye on meals consumption.”
The staff went on to turn precisely which neurons within the mind had been maximum necessary for the function of Htr1b in mediating urge for food, homing in on a small staff of cells inside the mind’s hypothalamus.
Different researchers who contributed to this learn about come with Li Li, Steven C. Wyler, Luis A. León-Mercado, Baijie Xu, Swati, Xiameng Chen, Rong Wan, and Amanda G. Arnold of UT Southwestern; Youjin Oh and Jong-Woo Sohn of Korea Complex Institute of Science and Era; Lin Jia of UT Dallas; Guanlin Wang of the College of Oxford; Katherine Nautiyal of Dartmouth School; and René Rooster of Columbia College.
The learn about used to be funded via the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (R01 DK114036, DK130892, F32DK116427, K01AA024809), the American Well being Affiliation (16SDG27260001), a UTSW Pilot and Feasibility Award, and a Grossman Endowment Award for Excellence in Diabetes Analysis.
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UT Southwestern, one of the crucial country’s premier instructional scientific facilities, integrates pioneering biomedical analysis with outstanding medical care and schooling. The establishment’s school has gained six Nobel Prizes, and contains 26 contributors of the Nationwide Academy of Sciences, 17 contributors of the Nationwide Academy of Medication, and 14 Howard Hughes Clinical Institute Investigators. The whole-time school of greater than 2,900 is liable for groundbreaking scientific advances and is dedicated to translating science-driven analysis briefly to new medical remedies. UT Southwestern physicians supply care in additional than 80 specialties to greater than 100,000 hospitalized sufferers, greater than 360,000 emergency room circumstances, and oversee just about 4 million outpatient visits a 12 months.