molecular biology
march 2015
BY justin tram
Special Microbes Provide New Anti-Obesity Cure
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Forget all the harsh diet regimens out there- researchers at the National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) funded by the National Institute of Health may have found a solution to obesity that is as easy as just popping a microbe pill.
Obesity has been a recurring problem especially in today’s society, where one in three people is obese, causing a myriad of conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. Though there are no shortages of dietary plans to shed weight, the problem is that overeating trends tend to make a comeback, and the majority of Americans who embark on a lifestyle diet change tend to fall back into those same ruts within a year. Enter microbes. Scientists have newly programmed bacteria to generate a molecule that uses a body’s normal metabolic process in order to suppress hunger.
Researchers at Vanderbilt University selected N-acyl-phosphatidylethanolamines, molecules in the small intestine which quickly transform to an appetite-suppressing lipid after a meal. They then genetically altered probiotic bacteria to produce these molecules and introduced these bacteria into water to be drunk. The advantages to this method is that contrary to other pharmaceutical drugs that require frequent dosages to keep off the weight, these bacteria are low maintenance and live in the system for up to a year before needing to be replaced again.
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