"Worm screening" in obesity study, to find a way, new targets for human diseases

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Researchers examine human metabolism at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have identified a handful of chemical compounds, the fat storage in worms rules provides a new tool for understanding obesity and future therapies for diseases found associated with obesity.

As in a paper published this month in the journal nature chemical biology describes the UCSF team took armies of microscopic worms exposed to called c. elegans and thousands of different chemical compounds. Give these links to the worms, discovered she made fatter or skinnier as they eat, basically without affecting, to grow or reproduce.

The discovery offers scientists to investigate new possibilities for the metabolism and could deal finally to the development of new drugs to regulate excessive fat accumulation and the metabolic a series of serious human health problems, including obesity, diabetes and some forms of cancer.

The work shows the value of "Worm screening" as a way to find new targets for human diseases, according to the UCSF scientists, whose work of postdoc George Lemieux, PhD, in the laboratory of Professor Zena wurdePhD, Vice Chairman of the Department of Anatomy allotted to given UCSF.

The work was a collaboration with Kaveh Ashrafi, PhD, associate professor in the UCSF Department of Physiology and Roland Bainton, MD, PhD, associate professor in residence in the UCSF Department of anesthesia & perioperative care.

Why are fat worms

The UCSF team interested in worms with fat dealing began with a more fundamental to human metabolism. Worms make molecules people do fat for the same reasons - they are useful for storing energy and a basic building block for body tissues. Many of the genes and mechanisms using worms, fat, similar systems in humans, regulate collection and not all of them are fully understand.

Starting with 3,200 different chemical compounds and 3,200 pools of tiny worms, the UCSF team used a red dye, which adheres to fat molecules to under the microscope to identify which of the chemicals the worms thicker (more red) made or skinnier (less red). It identifies a few dozen and more testing, hemmed in on about 10 connections, who believe they regulate lipid metabolism. Not only but in insect and human cells grown in test tubes, leading Lemieux, to fat storage in the worms take changed these links that it "can be useful metabolism in other organisms for understanding."

One of these compounds modulates a molecular complex called an AMP activated kinase, which tracks the availability of cellular energy. Kinase complex is both worms and people, and some are important targets for drug design by pharmaceutical companies.

"The connection which we get can affect screen of our worm this kinase complex even if not better than anything, what out there", Ashrafi said.

The strength of the work, he added, is that it demonstrates the value of the new worm screen of existing screening tools to identify the genes, proteins and other molecular players in the human health.

This includes much of the drug discovery players identify and design ways to treating diseases that arise when they are not properly. But identify the goals is just the beginning. A drug design includes a long list of other hurdles to overcome, Ashrafi said, and the bottom line is that most work the potential drug that works well in the test tube not in people.

The value of the worm screen, he said, is that it allows scientists to choose links for further study, who are already working effectively in the whole organism.

"Many of the drugs, which today are in clinical use or development, discovered basically by accident", said Ashrafi. "If we understand everything about everything, we could design probably the right connections." "But the reality is our understanding for the biological principles and still in its infancy are chemical principles."

Source:
Jason Sokrates Bardi
University of California - San Francisco