2023-09-07 07:59:48
Going deeper into the dialogue between genes and the environment and identifying subtypes of obesity are some of the lines that should be explored in order to find new answers.
A study reveals that there are multiple routes that lead to obesity, a disease that is already a pandemic and in which much progress has been made, but about which there are also many unknowns. Going deeper into the dialogue between genes and the environment and identifying subtypes of obesity are some of the lines that should be explored in order to find new answers.
These are some of the conclusions of a review article published in the journal Science, where he realizes how much researchers have learned in the last 50 years about the possible causes of obesity, but also emphasizes the questions for which answers have not yet been found and tries to determine how to direct the focus to solve them.
The article notes that these answers will probably not be reached until there is a “genes and environment” approach, rather than a “genes versus environment” perspective, according to the article’s signatory researchers, led by John R. Speakman (Laboratory of Metabolic Health of the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Medical University of China).
Thus, the authors of this work review the main findings regarding the genetic variants associated with body mass index and the metabolic pathways that act on the brain and the gastrointestinal tract and that impact on the sensation of hunger and the deposition of fat in various tissues.
They also note that there has been increasing research on changes in the food environment and social factors that contribute to obesity, although they acknowledge that the specific mechanisms involved remain unknown. “Since the many environmental and genetic causes of obesity are diverse, there are many routes to the disease,” Speakman and co-authors note.
How to define subtypes
A prominent message from the article is that subtypes of obesity may well exist, and identifying these subtypes may be key to determining better prevention and adopting specific treatments. However, how to define these subtypes is still an unsolved objective.
Cristóbal Morales, a specialist in the Endocrinology and Nutrition Department of the Virgen Macarena Hospital in Seville, highlights the interest of the study and the depth with which it addresses the panorama of knowledge about obesity, “showing the complexity of a disease with multiple etiopathogenic causes, already very different levels, some of which we still do not know”.
In addition, it emphasizes the different response of each organism and that “as we have been saying there are many obesity, not just one, and the objective is to carry out precision medicine in this field with increasingly personalized diagnosis and treatment” says Morales.
fight stigma
The article “invites us to become aware that we are facing a global pandemic and to continue researching, while providing tools to combat the stigma that surrounds obesity by reviewing the wide range of causes that can condition its appearance and that have to do with both biological, genetic, psychological and social factors, among others”, indicates this expert.
Mar Malagón, professor of Cellular Biology at the University of Córdoba and deputy scientific director of the Maimonides Institute for Biomedical Research (IMIBIC) in the same city, pronounces in a similar line, who points out that the article guides us on where we have to look to better understand this complex disease.
How is body fat distributed?
For example, “we still do not know details about how the different mechanisms involved in weight control work and we also know that, although this is an important factor because it gives an idea of how much adipose tissue exists, it is certainly not the only one because it is equally important know how body fat is distributed.”
The article refers to the knowledge already available on the action of hormones such as leptin and its relationship with the sending of satiety signals to the brain, “but we know that other factors are also involved in this aspect that still elude us,” explains Mar Malagón .
Regulation of thermogenesis and brown adipose tissue
The thermogenesis and action of brown adipose tissue is one of the chapters that is giving rise to more knowledge in recent years “but we still ignore many aspects of how it is regulated, especially in humans, as well as why it stops working or is deregulated adipose tissue when it is filled with fat”, specifies this expert.
Relationship with the brain
The article also gives an account of the extensive research currently focused on the brain and its link to obesity, with evidence on the relationship between certain signals and food intake, but also with unknowns about how the brain processes all the information it receives and gives orders to the body, as well as on the regulation of reward mechanisms that can drive us to eat.
The researchers also refer to the importance of taking into account not only the amount of food eaten but also the type of nutrients and the relationship between increased consumption of ultra-processed foods and obesity. Covadonga Diaz
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