New neurons promise better obesity treatments

A team of researchers has discovered a previously unknown population of neurons in the hypothalamus that regulate food intake and could be a promising new target for obesity drugs, according to a recent study.

In the study published in Nature journal, researchers from the Laboratory of Medical Genetics at Rockefeller University in New York, the Institute for Genome Science (IGS) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) in Baltimore, as well as New York and Stanford Universities, discovered a new population of neurons that is responsive to the hormone leptin.

Leptin responsive neurons are important in obesity since leptin is sent to the brain from the body's fat stores to suppress hunger.