Researchers Isolate Appetite-regulating Receptor

Schematic Representation of MCH Receptor

A newly isolated receptor in the brain, which has a major role in regulating eating behavior, may have important implications in the future treatment of obesity as well as eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa. The receptor triggers the activities of melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH), a hormone that Harvard Medical School researchers found to have appetite-modulating properties. But until recently, the receptor that MCH binds to, thus stimulating hunger, was unknown.

Two separate groups of researchers were successful in identifying and isolating the MCH receptor. "It's an exciting discovery because it offers hope for developing drugs that could treat food-consumption disorders," said Olivier Civelli, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology at the University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine, and head of one team of researchers including Yumiko Saito, Ph.D., and Hans-Peter Nothacker, Ph.D. The other research group was led by Jon Chambers of SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals in Britain.

This finding may be a significant first step in the development of obesity-treatment drugs that block MCH from binding to the receptor. The design of drugs that stimulate, rather than block, the binding action could be part of an effective treatment for anorexia nervosa.

The studies are reported in two articles in the July 15, 1999, issue of Nature and can be found on the Web at www.nature.com.