Mechanism for Inflammation-Mediated Anorexia Identified

Researchers at the University of Arizona have identified a brain region that regulates appetite suppression and activation within the amygdala of mice. Regulation of this region may help in treating disordered eating, such as that seen in anorexia patients or overeating that leads to obesity, according to the paper published in Nature Communications.

Loss of appetite or anorexia can be triggered by disease-induced inflammation, but the exact neural mechanism that mediate inflammation-associated anorexia remain poorly understood.

In the current study, the researchers identified a population of neurons in a region of the amygdala that react to various inflammatory signals. Silencing that region of neurons in mice, causing an increase of appetite. Activating the neurons caused a decrease in appetite.

"By silencing the neurons within the circuit, we can effectively block feeding suppression caused by inflammation to make patients eat more," said assistant professor Haijiang Cai, who heads up the neuroscience lab that ran the study. "We used anorexia for simplification, but for people with obesity, we can activate those neurons to help them eat less. That's the potential impact of this kind of study."

While the results are preliminary, they offer potential insight into how brain regions work together to control feeding behavior. The next steps will be to confirm that this brain region exists in humans and that the same mechanisms are at play as those in mice.