Several obesity drugs are already on the market, but they are generally used for short-term weight loss and are aimed at the brain and appetite; they don’t directly target metabolism.iStockphoto/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Scientists have finally figured out how the key gene tied to obesity makes people fat, a major discovery that could open the door to an entirely new approach to the problem beyond diet and exercise.
The work solves a big mystery: Since 2007, researchers have known that a gene called FTO was related to obesity, but they didn't know how and could not tie it to appetite or other known factors.
Now, experiments have revealed that a faulty version of the gene causes energy from food to be stored as fat rather than burned. Genetic tinkering in mice and on human cells in the lab suggests this can be reversed, giving hope that a drug or other treatment might be developed to do the same in people.
The work was led by scientists at MIT and Harvard University and published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine.
The discovery challenges the notion that "when people get obese it was basically their own choice because they chose to eat too much or not exercise," said study leader Melina Claussnitzer, a genetics specialist at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "For the first time, genetics has revealed a mechanism in obesity that was not really suspected before" and gives a third explanation or factor that's involved.
Independent experts praised the discovery.
"It's a big deal," said Clifford Rosen, a scientist at Maine Medical Center Research Institute and an associate editor at the medical journal.
"A lot of people think the obesity epidemic is all about eating too much," but our fat cells play a role in how food gets used, he said. With this discovery, "you now have a pathway for drugs that can make those fat cells work differently."
Several obesity drugs are already on the market, but they are generally used for short-term weight loss and are aimed at the brain and appetite; they don't directly target metabolism.
Researchers can't guess how long it might take before a drug based on the new findings becomes available. But it's unlikely it would be a magic pill that would enable people to eat anything they want without packing on the pounds. And targeting this fat pathway could affect other things, so a treatment would need rigorous testing to prove safe and effective.
The gene glitch doesn't explain all obesity. It was found in 44 per cent of Europeans but only 5 per cent of Africans, so other genes clearly are at work, and food and exercise still matter.
Having the glitch doesn't destine you to become obese but may predispose you to it. People with two faulty copies of the gene (one from Mom and one from Dad) weighed an average of seven pounds more than those without them. But some were obviously a lot heavier than that, and even seven pounds can be the difference between a healthy and an unhealthy weight, said Manolis Kellis, a professor at MIT.
He and Claussnitzer are seeking a patent related to the work. It involved people in Europe, Sweden and Norway, and was funded by the German Research Center for Environmental Health and others, including the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Obesity affects more than 500 million people worldwide and contributes to a host of diseases. In the United States, about one-third of adults are obese and another one-third are more modestly overweight.