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Study points up new hormones found that affect appetite BOSTON (February 19, 1998 5:24 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) - Scientists have found two new hormones that seem to influence eating behavior and could lead to new treatments for obesity and help adults with diabetes control the disease. The Texas researchers' finding is published in Friday's issue of Cell magazine. "It could also be of value for people suffering from the effects of emaciation such as cancer patients or AIDS patients," said Dr. Masashi Yanagisawa of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. The hormones, dubbed orexin-A and orexin-B, are released by nerve cells in the region of the brain known to play a key role in appetite. When Yanagisawa and his colleagues injected the hormones into the brains of rats, the animals began eating more. When they starved the animals, brain levels of the hormones increased. The team also pinpointed proteins studding the surface of nerve cells that react to the presence of orexin-A and orexin-B. That reaction sparks a chemical cascade that affects eating behavior. Finding a way to prevent or slow the release of the hormones, or blocking the protein receptors that are sensitive to them could lead to a new way to control appetite. The process could also be turned around to encourage eating in people who have become dangerously thin. Weight control is believed to be important for preventing or controlling a host of health problems, the most prominent of which are heart disease and the form of diabetes that appears in adulthood. "For the treatment of adult diabetes, one of the most important aspects is to lose weight," Yanagisawa said. The team is now trying to genetically engineer rats that lack one of the orexin hormones and both protein receptors to see if the defect affects their appetites. Yanagisawa said researchers at SmithKline Beecham were already trying to create an oral medicine that will block the protein receptors. The newly discovered hormones are two of about a dozen chemicals in the body known to affect eating behavior, Yanagisawa said. Whether the two forms of orexin are more important than the others "is something we have to study from now on," he said. The hormones get their name from the Greek word orexis, which means appetite. Copyright 1998 Nando.net Copyright 1998 Reuters News Service janet paterson 50-9 / sinemet-selegiline-prozac almonte-ontario-canada / [log in to unmask]