You Can Officially Blame Obesity on the Genes, University of Cambridge Study

As the number of children battling obesity continues to grow, researchers are racing to identify causes and possible interventions. Now, a new paper publishing October 24 in the journal Cell identifies a possible genetic root to the insatiable appetite and slow metabolism of some obese patients. The study, which sequenced 2,101 individuals with severe early-onset obesity, found that patients harboring mutations in a particular gene, KSR2, had an increased appetite and a slower metabolism than people with a normal copy of the gene. The findings suggest that drugs developed to modulate the activity of the protein encoded by the KSR2 gene could provide new treatment options for obesity and type-2 diabetes.

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