Scientists offer hope for genetically determined obesity
London, June 3: Unable to maintain weight loss due to your genetic predisposition to obesity? Take heart, an injectable drug widely used to lower blood sugar levels can help you fight overweight, suggest a study.
Around two to six per cent of all people with obesity develop obesity already in early childhood because they are genetically programmed to do so.
Obesity-causal mutations in one of their "appetite genes" gives them a strong genetic predisposition for developing obesity, also called monogenic obesity. Their experience of hunger is over-ruling and their feeling of satiety limited.
Researchers discovered that this group of people with obesity can lose weight with the help of the medicine liraglutide -- a modified form of the appetite-inhibiting hormone GLP-1 naturally secreted from the intestine when we eat.
"The appetite-inhibiting drug liraglutide has a positive effect on them. They feel less hungry and lose six per cent of their body weight within four months," said lead author Signe Sorensen Torekov, associate professor at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
In the study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, the team have examined a small group with obesity caused by pathogenic mutations in the so-called MC4R gene and those with obesity without the mutations.
Both groups were treated with the medicine for four months; no changes were made to their diet and level of exercise in this period.
The individuals with this most common form of monogenic obesity lost 7 kg of their body weight compared to 6 kg for the people with common obesity.
Medicine acting as an analogue to our natural GLP-1 hormone is already available, as it has been approved by both the US Food Drug Association and European Medicines Agency for the treatment of obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
The study thus makes it possible to treat the most common form of genetically caused obesity, where patients respond poorly to existing treatments, the researchers noted.
As MC4R mutations cause obesity already in early childhood, the researchers hope the results can pave the way for new studies on young people in the future.
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'ED must show order copy', AAP rejects claims of sanction to prosecute Kejriwal
New Delhi, Dec 21: Aam Aadmi Party leaders in Delhi, including Chief Minister Atishi, on Saturday rejected claims that Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has granted sanction to the Enforcement Directorate to prosecute party supremo Arvind Kejriwal in the alleged excise policy scam.
While no formal reaction was immediately available from the lieutenant governor's (LG) office on the issue, sources in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said it is yet to receive the sanction to prosecute Kejriwal in the excise policy case linked to money laundering.
"Reports of ED getting prosecution sanction (against Kejriwal) are false. Had the LG granted prosecution sanction, why isn't the ED showing its copy," senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia, who was also an accused in the excise policy case, asked in a statement.
This is nothing but an attempt to divert attention from the "disrespect" shown by the BJP to Babasaheb Ambedkar, Sisodia alleged.
Atishi claimed reports about LG granting prosecution sanction are being spread solely to "mislead people and divert attention from real issues".
Stating that the BJP should stop such "conspiracies", the chief minister said in a post on X, "If the LG has granted prosecution sanction against Arvind Kejriwal, why does the ED have a problem in making its copy public?"
Sanjay Singh, AAP Rajya Sabha MP and also an accused in the excise policy case, claimed "LG V K Saxena has not granted any prosecution sanction", adding that the ED should make public if it has received any letter on this.
Meanwhile, BJP MP from New Delhi, Bansuri Swaraj, hit back at AAP claiming its leaders were "panicked" with the thought of Kejriwal's prosecution.
"If the lieutenant governor grants permission to prosecute Kejriwal, corruption in the AAP government will become the main political issue, which 'Team Kejriwal' does not want before the (Assembly) elections," she said in a statement.
"The truth is that cases against Kejriwal are already registered, and 'Team Kejriwal' is aware that this approval could expedite the ongoing cases against him, possibly leading to jail term for him in the near future," she claimed..
In March this year, the ED arrested then Chief Minister Kejriwal in connection with the money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy (2021-22). He was released from prison on September 13 after the Supreme Court granted him bail.
