University of Cincinnati scientists have identified a possible new target for treating obesity and diabetes. The target, a molecule called hVps34, is activated by amino acids entering the cell. The molecule triggers the activation of an enzyme, S6 Kinase 1 (S6K1), whose function UC researchers linked last year to obesity and insulin resistance. “Insulin and amino acids both play a critical role in growth and development,” lead author George Thomas, interim director of UC’s Genome Research Institute and Department of Genome Science, said in a press release. “Both are responsible for ‘driving’ cell growth. Now we have found that they actually work through independent pathways to trigger a molecule that turns on S6K1.
