Asli Shenol
New medicine against obesity
New weight-loss drug targets a previously overlooked receptor in the brain’s appetite control center.
Asli Shenol is a postdoc in professor Thue W. Schwartz’s lab at the NNF Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen, and she has just received a Frontier Grant from the Lundbeck Foundation to develop the drug and present it to potential investors.
The idea for the project arose when researchers in Thue W. Schwartz’s lab discovered the receptor in the brain during another project. They already knew of it from the digestive system. The receptor is located right in the center of the brain’s appetite regulation center, specifically in the same cells where the current weight-loss drugs act by mimicking the body’s own appetite-suppressing hormones GLP-1 and amylin.
“The receptor is located in a place where a drug can easily penetrate. That’s why it’s possible to target it precisely and affect appetite regulation directly and potently,” explains Asli Shenol.
The goal of the new drug is to affect the vagus nerve, which is part of the autonomic nervous system. This nerve runs all the way from the brain to the gastrointestinal tract and is involved in regulating signals of satiety and hunger. For example, when the intestinal hormone GLP-1 signals "full" to the brain, it happens via the vagus nerve.
Read more about Asli Shenol's Frontier Grant:
A tablet that can promote weight loss, enhance the effect and tolerance of the new appetite regulating drugs, and at the same time...
