Metabolic syndrome increases a person’s risk for diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, and includes conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure and high blood sugar. In a recent mouse-model study, published in Cell Metabolism, researchers at University Hospitals (UH), Harrington Discovery Institute at UH, and Case Western Reserve University have furthered their progress to develop a drug to treat metabolic syndrome by identifying a receptor that controls appetite and body weight.
“In 2016, our lab discovered a hormone called asprosin, which stimulates appetite and increases blood glucose levels,” explained Atul Chopra, MD, PhD, senior author on the study, Investigator at the Harrington Discovery Institute and Associate Director of the Rare Disease Program, Attending Medical Geneticist at UH, and Associate Professor of Medicine, and Genetics and Genomics at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. “Now we have discovered the receptor for asprosin in the brain. Blocking the receptor should provide a new treatment to lower glucose and insulin levels.”
Read the full article in Cell Metabolism
Rare/Orphan
University Hospitals - Cleveland
Harrington Investigators