(Science Daily) A new therapeutic vaccine to treat obesity by suppressing the appetite-stimulating hormone ghrelin decreases food intake and increases calorie burning in mice, a new study finds…
"An anti-ghrelin vaccine may become an alternate treatment for obesity, to be used in combination with diet and exercise," said Mariana Monteiro, MD, PhD…, lead investigator of the study.
Ghrelin is a gut hormone that promotes weight gain by increasing appetite and food intake while decreasing energy expenditure, or calorie burning. Recent research shows that bariatric surgeries, such as gastric bypass, suppress ghrelin.
"This suggests that there is a hormonal mechanism underlying the weight loss attained by the surgical procedures," Monteiro said.
Monteiro's group developed a therapeutic vaccine using a noninfectious virus carrying ghrelin, which was designed to provoke an immune response -- development of antibodies against ghrelin -- that would suppress this hormone.
Community: Regular readers know about my bias against surgery for obesity. This sounds like a much better alternative, assuming that it passes safety tests.
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