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McGill researchers discover a mutation that promotes the metabolism of fat instead of storing

According to researchers at McGill University, the recent discovery of a previously unknown mutation in a common nematode, or round worm, could help develop new treatments against human obesity. The results of their study, funded by the Canadian Cancer Society and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, were published on 3 December in the journal Nature.

The team of McGill University recently found a mutation in C. elegans that promotes fat metabolism rather than storage. The study was published in the journal Nature on December 3.

C. elegans is a nematode, in the absence of food, its metabolism slows down to survive longer without food. During this stage known as dauer, radically alter the worm's metabolism: it is energy reserves in the form of fat (or lipid) in special cells."When these worms pass dauer stage, they are radically altering their metabolism," says Richard Roy, a researcher in the Department of Cancer Biology at McGill and a specialist in the control of cell division. "They put on hold all that energy, namely, the search for food, cell division and reproduction." It can survive for up to six months without eating, instead of two weeks in normal times. But the worm carrying the mutation has been found killed in the weeks following this stage.

"They can not adjust their metabolism. They manage well to store fat reserves for six months, but once they enter the dauer stage, they burn in a few days, said Richard Roy, a researcher in the Department of Cancer Biology at McGill. In fact, they lack the enzyme that blocks the activity of a major triglyceride lipase. In the absence of such regulation, this lipase burn fat all she met and destroyed the energy reserves of the worm ".

This discovery is in fact the almost accidental result of research that usually leads Richard Roy, whose goal is to identify cells that disobey cellular signals in the context of cancer. Richard Roy attributed largely to his doctoral student and lead author of the study, Patrick Narbonne.

Richard Roy, the antagonistic relationship between the two enzymes are responsible regimes that do not work and weight gain after a sudden deprivation of food. "I think we should begin by studying the enzymes involved in this series, especially in obese people. They also accumulate fat, but unlike what we have observed in the C. elegans, this enzyme does not recognize them or something inhibits its function. We believe it is possible to act on the normal regulation of this enzyme. "