(Best Syndication News) Just in time for the holiday season scientists reveal that they have identified the molecule that tells your brain when you are full. The discovery could lead to new obesity and weight loss drugs.

The researchers discovered that the chemical, NAPE (N-acylphosphatidylethanolamine), reduced food intake in experiments with rats. NAPE is made in the small intestines after ingesting a greasy meal and travels to the brain. Apparently this messenger is created in the body after eating fat, as opposed to eating carbohydrates and protein.

The more NAPE they injected the less food the rats ate. It is hoped that an appetite suppressor for humans can be developed. For decades researchers have tried to figure out how the brain knows how much fat has been eaten. This research indicates that NAPE acts as a gut/brain connection.

N-acylphosphatidylethanolamines (NAPEs) are hormones released by the small intestine into the bloodstream when it processes fat. It travels to the hypothalamus in the brain to suppress appetite.

Originally the scientists at the Yale School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute were investigating diabetes. After identifying various molecules they wanted to find out if NAPE could be used to treat obesity.

They hooked up 22 rats with vests that were connected to an IV that dispensed NAPE. The rats were able to move freely around the cage just like the control group. After five days the control rats gained weight while the NAPE-treated subjects lost ten percent of their body weight. They all appeared to be “well and healthy”.

The research team leader, Gerald Shulman at Yale School of Medicine, has begun to monitor NAPE levels in humans. They want to find out if NAPE levels rise after meals the same as they do in rats. They hope to begin clinical trials soon.

The research appears in the November 26, 2008, issue of the journal Cell.

By Marsha Quinn
Best Syndication News Health Writer

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