Genetic factors, 50-75% chance of affecting body weight…60 genes, encoding related proteins
About 60 genes encode proteins in the brain that may influence weight gain, a new study has found.
A joint research team from the Medical School of Laval University in Canada and the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute analyzed the genomes of more than 800,000 people of European descent and identified regarding 60 unique proteins that can play an important role in weight control in the brain.
The research team paid attention to brain regions that can affect food reward sensitivity (e.g., the pleasure you feel when eating greasy or sugary foods) and cognitive processes (decision-making, memory, etc.). This brain region, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, is known to be associated with appetite and satiety.
“Hundreds of genetic regions are known to influence body weight, but the function of most of them is unknown,” said Elroy Gagnon, a researcher at Laval University Medical School (doctoral course in clinical and biomedical sciences), the first author of the study. “About 60 of those genes are It has been confirmed that it is expressed in the brain and affects body weight.”
The findings support the hypothesis that the brain plays an important role in body weight regulation, and show potential interactions between the brain proteome (the sum of proteins within cells) and the evolving food environment. Interactions can have a major impact on human eating habits and energy storage. The study also explains why body mass index (BMI) varies so much from person to person.
“There is a 50 to 75 percent chance that genetic factors affect BMI,” said Benoit Arsenold, professor of medicine at Laval University and researcher at the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute, the lead author of the study. It shouldn’t be filmed,” he said.
“People who are large can become victims of prejudice and experience discrimination, intimidation or stigma, and fat phobia can adversely affect their physical and mental health,” he added. Weight is not solely due to individual choices or lifestyle habits, he emphasized that the brain is also responsible for weight because neural mechanisms work without us knowing.
The results of this study (Genetic control of body weight by the human brain proteome) were published in ≪iScience≫, a journal published by ≪Cell≫, an international academic journal.
