Genes which prevent 4 million people gaining weight discovered, in new hope for slimming medicine

www.telegraph.co.uk ^ | 18 April 2019 • 4:00pm | Henry Bodkin, Health Correspondent

[Red Badger]

The genes which protect around four million people in the UK from obesity have been discovered following a major research project.

Scientists at Cambridge University say drugs to keep people slim are now a possibility after they identified the handful of genetic factors that prevent overeating.

Medics have known for several years that genes can influence a person’s weight.

However, the new study is significant because it reveals in granular detail which variants suppress or encourage appetite.

The research team analysed the genetic profiles of more than half a million volunteers from the UK Biobank.

They found that around six per cent of British people with European ancestry have a particular combination which means they are more likely to avoid putting on weight regardless of their lifestyle.

Published in the journal Cell, the study focused on a gene known as MC4R which was previously identified by the same Cambridge scientists to play a role in appetite by controlling a receptor in the brain called melanocortin 4.

People who had certain variants of MC4R which disrupted this receptor tended to gain weight easily, the study found, while those who had a different combination caused the receptor to stay “switched on”, enjoying the opposite effect.

Participants with these variants would eat less, which probably explaining their lower weight.

The team found that people with two copies of these particular variants - one in over 1,000 people in the UK - were on average 2.5 kg lighter than people without the variants and had a 50 per cent lower risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Professors Sadaf Farooqi, who co-led the project, said: “This study drives home the fact that genetics plays a major role in why some people are obese - and that some people are fortunate enough to have...

[Red Badger]

I don’t fit in my genes anymore...............