|
|
Article: Neuronal Phosphatase: Path Of Least Leptin Resistance?
- Article from:
- BIOWORLD Today
- Article date:
- November 3, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 A Thomson Healthcare Company. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Science Editor
You may never get a second chance to make a first impression - but in medicine, from leeches to monoclonal antibodies onward, hardly anything works the first time. Which is why the leptin pathway remains an interesting anti-obesity target, with two recent papers reporting basic research that yet could help unlock its pharmaceutical potential.
The hormone leptin acts on the brain to inhibit food intake and increase energy expenditure. So after its discovery in 1994, the initial clinical strategy to exploit it was straightforward: administer leptin to obese patients.
That strategy bombed in clinical trials, as further basic research ...