Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0020505 (hyperphagia)
 6,116 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The central melanocortin system is involved in the regulation of food intake and body weight. In this study, we investigated the effect of a 4-week intracerebroventricular infusion of the melanocortin receptor agonist MT-II and the selective melanocortin-4 receptor antagonist HS024 on food intake and body weight homeostasis. The MT-II-treated rats ate less and lost considerably more weight than the control rats during the first week of treatment. During the second and third week, they gained weight and, by the end of the treatment period, the weight gain was similar to that of the control rats. The HS024 treatment caused hyperphagia and development of obesity during the entire period. Extensive accumulations of fat and a sixfold increase in leptin levels were observed in the HS024-treated rats, as compared with controls, after the 4-week period. Food conversion ratio, defined as body weight increase relative to weight of ingested food, was clearly increased in the HS024-treated rats, while it was lowered in the MT-II-treated rats compared with controls. The effect on food conversion ratio was transient, being greatest for both experimental groups during the first week and it was then attenuated to reach the level of controls at the end of the study. The results suggest that long-term injection of exogenous melanocortin receptor active substances may have an important transient effect on food conversion.
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PMID:Food conversion is transiently affected during 4-week chronic administration of melanocortin agonist and antagonist in rats. 1206 41

Agonists of membranal melanocortin 3 and 4 receptors (MC3/4Rs) are known to take part in the complex control mechanism of energy balance. In this study, we compared the physiological response to an exogenous MC3/4R agonist and the hypothalamic expression of proopic melanocortin (POMC) gene, encoding few MC3/4R ligands, between broiler and layer chicken strains. These strains, representing the two most prominent commercial strains of chickens grown for meat (broilers) and egg production (layers), differ in their food intake, fat accumulation, and reproductive performance and, therefore, form a good model of obese and lean phenotypes, respectively. A single i.v. injection of the synthetic peptide melanotan-II (MT-II; 1 mg/kg body weight) into the wing vein of feed-restricted birds led to attenuation of food intake upon exposure to feeding ad libitum in both broiler and layer chickens. A study of the POMC mRNA encoding the two prominent natural MC3/4R agonists, alpha-MSH and ACTH, also revealed a general similarity between the strains. Under feeding conditions ad libitum, POMC mRNA levels were highly similar in chicks of both strains and this level was significantly reduced upon feed restriction. However, POMC mRNA down-regulation upon feed restriction was more pronounced in layers than in broilers. These results suggest: (i) a role for MC3/4R agonists in the control of appetite; (ii) that the physiological differences between broilers and layers are not related to unresponsiveness of broiler chickens to the satiety signal of MC3/4R ligands. Therefore, these findings suggest that artificial activation of this circuit in broiler chicks could help to accommodate with their agricultural shortcomings of overeating, fattening, and impaired reproduction.
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PMID:The melanocortin circuit in obese and lean strains of chicks. 1689 85

Bilateral lesions of the hypothalamic paraventricular nuclei (PVN) induce hyperphagia and obesity, and ghrelin stimulates appetite in rodents and humans. Conversely, corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) and melanotan-II (MT-II, a synthetic structural homologue of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, alphaMSH) inhibit feeding behavior. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether these peptides are involved in the hyperphagia and obesity induced by PVN lesions. After bilateral electrolytic lesions of the PVN, rats were given ghrelin intraperitoneally (i. p.), or intracerebroventricular (i. c. v.) infusion of CRH or MT-II. We measured the cumulative food intake (FI) for 4 h after ghrelin injection in rats fed AD LIB, and the changes in FI at 15 min, 30 min, 1 h, and 2 h after infusion of CRH and MT-II in rats fasted for 24 h. Ghrelin significantly increased cumulative FI, with maximal response 3 h and 4 h after injection, and at these times, the FI of PVN-lesioned rats was greater than that of sham-operated rats. CRH significantly decreased FI in all experimental animals, but at 1 h, there was a more powerful inhibitory effect on FI in the PVN-lesioned group than in the sham-operated group. MT-II decreased FI in sham-operated, but not in PVN-lesioned rats. Thus, ghrelin and CRH showed more potent orexigenic and anorectic effects in PVN-lesioned rats, respectively, but MT-II lost its inhibitory action on feeding behavior. These results suggest that the hyperphagia and obesity induced by PVN lesions may be related to an increased orexigenic action of ghrelin due to the destruction of endogenous CRH and alphaMSH receptors.
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PMID:Effects of ghrelin, corticotrophin-releasing hormone, and melanotan-II on food intake in rats with paraventricular nucleus lesions. 1805 2

A variety of metabolic/molecular changes in obese adipose tissue considerably contribute to the pathophysiology of life style-related diseases. Fat cell-derived hormone leptin controls appetite and energy homeostasis, thereby enhancing whole body insulin sensitivity. However, clinical application of leptin for the treatment of obesity/metabolic syndrome has been hampered by the fact that leptin does not fully exert its beneficial metabolic impact on prevalent forms of obesity. In an attempt to elucidate underlying mechanism of leptin resistance in obesity, we found that the activity of skeletal muscle AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) tightly parallels hypothalamic leptin sensitivity and metabolic phenotype in transgenic mice overexpressing leptin. Actually, intracerebroventricular administration of melanocortin agonist MT-II robustly overcomes high fat diet-induced leptin resistance and ameliorates fuel dyshomeostasis and hyperphagia in mice, with a concomitant recovery of AMPK activity in skeletal muscle, thereby highlighting the system as a therapeutic target for leptin resistance. In this context, type 4 melanocortin receptor is a promising drug target for the treatment of obesity/metabolic syndrome.
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PMID:[Energy homeostasis regulated by an adipocyte-derived hormone--mechanism of leptin resistance and role of hypothalamic melanocortin signaling]. 1920 1

The adipocyte-derived hormone, leptin controls feeding behavior, augments fatty acid beta-oxidation in the skeletal muscle, attenuates insulin secretion but enhances whole body insulin sensitivity and glucose disposal, thereby serving as a promising therapeutic candidate for the treatment of insulin resistance and dyslipidemia. Along with other researchers, we demonstrated the clinical efficacy and safety of leptin in the treatment of diabetes and dyslipidemia for patients with generalized lipodystrophy. However, the clinical application of leptin has been hampered by the notion that leptin does not fully exert its metabolic effects in human obesity and diet-induced obese rodents. We found that the activity of skeletal muscle AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) parallels hypothalamic leptin sensitivity and metabolic phenotype in transgenic mice overexpressing leptin. Our data indicate that the activation of skeletal muscle AMPK is mediated by the hypothalamic melanocortin pathway. In fact, intracerebroventricular administration of melanocortin agonist, MT-II in mice robustly overcomes high-fat diet-induced leptin resistance and ameliorates fuel dyshomeostasis and hyperphagia, with a concomitant recovery of AMPK activity in skeletal muscle. Conversely, AMPK/ACC phosphorylation by leptin was abrogated by the co-administration of melanocortin antagonist, SHU9119 and in the KKA(y) mice, which centrally express endogenous melanocortin antagonist. Importantly, high-fat diet-induced attenuation of AMPK/ACC phosphorylation in leptin-overexpressing transgenic mice was not reversed by central leptin per se, but was markedly recovered by MT-II. Our data provide evidence for the critical role of the central melanocortin system in leptin-skeletal muscle AMPK axis, and highlight the system as a therapeutic target for leptin insuffciency in obese humans.
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PMID:Hypothalamic melanocortin signaling and leptin resistance--perspective of therapeutic application for obesity-diabetes syndrome. 1939 82

Prader-Willi Syndrome is the most common syndromic form of human obesity and is caused by the loss of function of several genes, including MAGEL2. Mice lacking Magel2 display increased weight gain with excess adiposity and other defects suggestive of hypothalamic deficiency. We demonstrate Magel2-null mice are insensitive to the anorexic effect of peripherally administered leptin. Although their excessive adiposity and hyperleptinemia likely contribute to this physiological leptin resistance, we hypothesized that Magel2 may also have an essential role in intracellular leptin responses in hypothalamic neurons. We therefore measured neuronal activation by immunohistochemistry on brain sections from leptin-injected mice and found a reduced number of arcuate nucleus neurons activated after leptin injection in the Magel2-null animals, suggesting that most but not all leptin receptor-expressing neurons retain leptin sensitivity despite hyperleptinemia. Electrophysiological measurements of arcuate nucleus neurons expressing the leptin receptor demonstrated that although neurons exhibiting hyperpolarizing responses to leptin are present in normal numbers, there were no neurons exhibiting depolarizing responses to leptin in the mutant mice. Additional studies demonstrate that arcuate nucleus pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) expressing neurons are unresponsive to leptin. Interestingly, Magel2-null mice are hypersensitive to the anorexigenic effects of the melanocortin receptor agonist MT-II. In Prader-Willi Syndrome, loss of MAGEL2 may likewise abolish leptin responses in POMC hypothalamic neurons. This neural defect, together with increased fat mass, blunted circadian rhythm, and growth hormone response pathway defects that are also linked to loss of MAGEL2, could contribute to the hyperphagia and obesity that are hallmarks of this disorder.
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PMID:Magel2 is required for leptin-mediated depolarization of POMC neurons in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus in mice. 2334 84