NeuroEE · Delineation of a brain circuit regulating energy expenditure to impact body weight
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2016-02-01 → 2018-01-31
- EU contribution
- €195,455
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Delineation of a brain circuit regulating energy expenditure to impact body weight
The World Health Organisation now classifies obesity as a global “epidemic” based on its rapidly increasing prevalence. This presents a major challenge to human health because obesity predisposes to chronic medical illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Though obesity is now incredibly common, it remains very difficult to reverse. The objective of the research in NeuroEE is to examine a new way to treat obesity by increasing energy expenditure. By stimulating energy expenditure, calories that are stored are burned and body weight is reduced. To achieve this, my research targeted a particular brain region that sends signals to a key type of fat called brown adipose tissue that functions as one of the body’s major furnaces that burns energy to keep us warm, Using new technology, I was able to regulate the activity of this essential energy expenditure centre, and by increasing energy expenditure, reduce body weight in experimental subjects. The impact of this discovery is that it may lead to a new type of obesity treatment that could ultimately improve human health on a global scale.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Obesity is now a global epidemic with a significant and deleterious impact on human health. My career aim is to clarify the neural underpinnings of energy expenditure (EE) given that this makes a significant contribution to body weight. During my early career, I discovered a circuit linking the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) to brown adipose tissue (BAT) and inducing thermogenic beige (browning) white adipose tissue (WAT), regulating EE. Moreover, I found that the VMH-BAT axis is utilized by estrogen (Cell Metabolism, 2014) and nicotine (Diabetes, 2012) to increase EE and decrease body weight. My preliminary data indicate that a critical node between the VMH and BAT is the raphe pallidus (RPa), a brain region known to drive sympathetic tone to BAT. My immediate career aim is to clarify the neurochemical communicator receiving the VMH-EE related input and transmitting to BAT and browning. Given that the RPa is rich in the neurotransmitter 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) which plays a role in thermoregulation, I hypothesize that 5-HT is a crucial component of my circuit. I propose to perform a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship (MSC) under Prof Lora Heisler’s supervision, arguably the global leader in 5-HT obesity research. Her laboratory is in the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Aberdeen, an Institute with more than a century of focused state-of-the-art obesity and nutrition research. This will supply an optimal environment for a MSC providing me with the opportunity to broaden my research interests, and allowing me to construct an international network of obesity researchers. A MSC will also provide the opportunity for me to be trained in transferable next generation engineered genetic technology that will allow me to rigorously and definitively test my current research hypothesis and to provide state-of-the-art expertise that will form a platform for my future career.5-HT, brown adipose tissue, browning, raphe pallidus, ventromedial hypothalamus
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE UNIVERSITY COURT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN · AberdeenCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union