Researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine and others discovered a molecule produced during exercise in mice that suppresses feeding and obesity.
Researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine and other institutions discovered a molecule produced during exercise in mice that suppresses feeding and obesity. The results of the study were published in Nature on Wednesday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the prevalence of obesity in the U.S. is 41.9%. Obesity can lead to severe health conditions, including heart disease, stroke, Type II Diabetes and some types of cancer, all of which can lead to premature death.
Historically, physicians and health agency officials have recommended exercise to combat and prevent obesity. The CDC recommends that people working on weight management should work their way up to 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise or an equivalent mix of both to maintain weight, with diet adjustments recommended for those looking to lose weight. And to no one’s surprise, researchers overarchingly have found that physical activity increases energy expenditure and decreases total body fat, leading to weight loss.
However, researchers have aimed to understand the process of exercise at a molecular level to perhaps one day harness that process as a potential therapeutic. Corresponding authors Jonathan Long, M.D., and Yong Xu, Ph.D., reported in Nature that their team discovered an exercise-inducible metabolite known as N-lactoyl-phenylalanine (Lac-Phe) that suppresses feeding and obesity in mice models.
The researchers analyzed blood plasma compounds from mice that participated in intense treadmill running. They found that the most significantly-induced molecule during the exercise period was Lac-Phe. Lac-Phe is synthesized from lactate, which is produced during strenuous exercise, and phenylalanine, a building block of protein.
Later, the team replicated these findings in both racehorses and humans, leading the researchers to conclude that metabolite is part of a system that regulates feeding, influences systemic energy balance and is associated with physical activity in many species.
Taking their findings a step further, the researchers then used mice with diet-induced obesity to see if Lac-Phe was capable of helping the mice lose weight. Without modifying the mice’s movement or energy expenditure, administering Lac-Phe was associated with reduced cumulative food intake and reduced body weight from the loss of body fat, while also improving glucose tolerance over the course of ten days. The research group also found mice that lacked an enzyme called CNDP2 did not lose as much weight on an exercise regimen as mice with the enzyme, as CNDP2 is important in the production of Lac-Phe.
Xu told Medical Xpress that the team plans to continue researching the molecule and investigating how it mediates its effects on the body and the brain. The ultimate goal for the group is to modulate the exercise pathway for therapeutic interventions.
The team envisions a future therapeutic being able to benefit individuals who suffer from conditions that make exercise more difficult and harder to achieve, such as those with heart disease, osteoporosis and other disabilites.
