Hormones are molecules that exert the functions of messengers in our body. They take part in a large number of physiological processes, among which are the food and digestion of the food we consume. Among them, we know several hormones that regulate appetite and satiety.
Evolutionary History A new study has analyzed The evolutionary history of bombsin, a hormone capable of transmitting the signal of satiety to our brain. This hormone had already been detected in some species of vertebrates and we know that it is capable of exercising this function in humans. Now we have found the genes that encode these hormones in very distant species evolutionarily, such as sea stars.
Bombsin Bombsine was discovered in 1971, not in humans but in an amphibian, the belly toad fire (Bombina Bombina). It is a small peptide similar to those used by our own body to transmit (among other “messages”) the sign that we have satiated, molecules such as glucagon, the gastric inhibitor peptide (GIP), or the peptide similar to glucagon-1 (LPG-1).
The researchers who studied the bombsin verified that, by injecting it into mammals, this also caused a feeling of satiety. This caused the subjects to reduce the amount of foods they consumed and space their intakes more over time.
Needle in a haystack. In his study, the team responsible for New Research, began to study the genomes of different invertebrate animals until it ran into genes capable of encoding hormones similar to bombsin. And they found them in several equinoderms species (Echinodermata), As for example in the common sea star (Asterias Rubens), but also in hedgehogs and sea cucumbers.
“It was like finding a needle in a haystack,” explained in a press release Maurice Elphick, co -author of the study, “but finally we discover the genes that encode a neurohormone similar to the stars of sea stars and their relatives.”
Arbn.After that, the team studied the function of this hormone, which they called Arbn. Through mass spectrometry, the equipment was able to determine the molecular structure of the compound, thanks to which they could synthesize it and submit it to test. Thus they found that the hormone had an impact on the gastric processes of sea stars.
“When I put Arbn, I saw that it caused contraction in the stomach of the sea star,” Weiling Huang addedCo -author of the study. “This, Sig would, that Arbn could be involved in stimulating the stomach retraction when the sea star stops eating. And that is precisely what I saw. When I injected Arbn into the sea stars (…) it made the stomach retract (…). What is more, arbn also delayed the beginning of the food, since the stars injected with arb those that water was injected. “
The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Making historians. The study gives us new clues about how our digestive system and its tools to control its internal processes evolved. A track that allows us to ride ourselves 500 million years ago, when the last common ancestor of humans and sea stars inhabited the earth.
But the finding also has significance for the pharmacological industry. In recent years they have seen the rise of various treatments based on hormone analogous substances such as LPG-1 or GIP. Compounds such as semaglutida (better known by its commercial name Ozempic) or the tirzepatida (Tirzepatida) were born as diabetes treatments but achieved success as losing weight formulas.
These compounds emulate the hormones that our body secretes behind meals, hormones that fulfill the function of communicating to organs such as the pancreas that our digestive process is underway but that also transmit to the brain the message that we have satiated our appetite. Compounds such as Bombsine, Arbn, or similar could perhaps be used also In this context.
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Image | Hans Hillewaert, CC by-SA 4.0
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