Obesity-Related Enzyme Targeted in Mouse Study

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter Latest Diet & Weight Management News

WEDNESDAY, April 9, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- An enzyme in the fat and liver of mice could take a key role in future attempts to battle obesity and type 2 diabetes, according to a new study.

The enzyme -- nicotinamide N-methyltransferase, or NNMT -- appears to help regulate the ability of cells to burn energy efficiently, researchers report.

By hampering the gene that produces the enzyme, researchers were able to keep mice fed a high-fat diet from gaining weight. The mice also became better at using insulin to process blood sugar, which could lower their odds for developing diabetes.

"The mice were eating normally. It wasn't a food intake effect. They actually had increased energy expenditure," said senior author Dr. Barbara Kahn, vice chair of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a professor at Harvard Medical School. "For every calorie they ate, they burned up more energy."

Controlling levels of this enzyme could potentially help people reach and maintain a healthy weight by prompting the body to burn excess energy rather than store it, Kahn suggested.

"Diet and exercise will always be very key, but this opens up the possibility of a new way to speed up cellular metabolism so people don't store as much fat," she said.

Results of animal research do not necessarily apply to humans, however.

Kahn and her colleagues discovered this new role for the enzyme while researching the role of body fat in the development of type 2 diabetes.

Researchers studied thousands of genes present in the fat of mice to determine which ones affected the body's ability to convert glucose (blood sugar) into cellular energy, Kahn said.

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Obesity-Related Enzyme Targeted in Mouse Study