The role of biased agonism in the treatment of obesity

偏向激动在肥胖治疗中的作用

• 批准号: MR/Y00132X/1
• 负责人: Ben Jones
• 金额: $ 226.57万
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FY00132X%2F1
• 关键词: role; biased; agonism; treatment; obesity

Almost one billion people are obese, including one third of the UK population. People who are obese are at high risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, joint problems and cancer. Obesity is an area of high priority for the MRC and for the NHS. Many people find it difficult to lose weight naturally. The only truly effective treatment is weight loss surgery, such as the "gastric bypass" operation, but this can lead to complications and is not popular with all patients. As a result, there is enormous interest in producing medicines to help people lose weight. A group of medicines known as "glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonists" has recently been approved for weight loss. These mimic the effect of a natural hormone (GLP-1) by activating its target, or "receptor", in the brain to reduce hunger. Other hunger-reducing hormones, including "amylin", are also under investigation as potential weight loss treatments. However, none of these are as effective as gastric bypass surgery because the maximum dose is limited by nausea and/or vomiting. I have recently generated new, improved GLP-1R agonists that behave differently to existing versions on the market as they activate GLP-1R in an unusual way, referred to as "biased agonism". Biased GLP-1R agonists appear very promising as they produce more weight loss but less nausea. Interestingly, they also work particularly well in combination with amylin-based treatments (amylin analogues), causing larger reductions in hunger even at low doses.The overall aim of my research is to understand why biased GLP-1R agonists work so well for weight loss, both on their own and when combined with with amylin analogues. Fully understanding their mechanism of action will help develop this approach into a better treatment for obesity. I will address three main research questions: 1. Which neurons in the brain respond to biased GLP-1R agonists and amylin analogues - are they the same or different? This will be done by measuring the effect of different GLP-1 and amylin analogues on feeding behaviour and changes to brain tissue in mice. 2. How do neurons respond to biased GLP-1R agonists and amylin analogues - what is happening inside the neurons themselves that allows them to reduce hunger? To answer this, I will generate a genetically modified mouse in which the receptor itself has a fluorescent molecule attached, meaning individual receptors and how they behave can be directly observed using a microscope.3. How do biased GLP-1R agonists and amylin analogues physically interact with their receptors, and how is this affected by natural genetic variations in receptor structure found in different people? To do this I will develop a new technique called "deep mutational scanning", which allows thousands of receptor variations to be tested in in a single experiment, which is much faster than the normal method based on testing each variation individually.This work will be done at Imperial College London but involve collaborations with other researchers in the UK and internationally. The results will be an important step to developing a new weight loss treatment, and will also show how genetic differences can influence how well the drugs work, meaning that in the future we may be able to individualise treatments based on genetic testing.The overall design of the experiments should also be applicable to other hormone targets, meaning it could be used to develop other obesity treatments in the future.

近十亿人肥胖，其中包括三分之一的英国人口。肥胖者患糖尿病、心脏病、关节问题和癌症的风险很高。肥胖是 MRC 和 NHS 高度重视的领域。许多人发现自然减肥很困难。唯一真正有效的治疗方法是减肥手术，例如“胃绕道手术”，但这会导致并发症，并非受到所有患者的欢迎。因此，人们对生产帮助人们减肥的药物产生了巨大的兴趣。一组被称为“胰高血糖素样肽-1受体（GLP-1R）激动剂”的药物最近被批准用于减肥。它们通过激活大脑中的目标或“受体”来模仿天然激素（GLP-1）的作用，以减少饥饿感。其他减少饥饿的激素，包括“胰淀素”，也正在作为潜在的减肥疗法进行研究。然而，这些方法都不像胃绕道手术那么有效，因为最大剂量受到恶心和/或呕吐的限制。我最近生成了新的、改进的 GLP-1R 激动剂，其行为与市场上现有版本不同，因为它们以一种不寻常的方式激活 GLP-1R，称为“偏向激动”。偏向 GLP-1R 激动剂似乎非常有前途，因为它们可以减轻更多体重，但减少恶心。有趣的是，它们与胰岛淀粉样多肽类药物（胰岛淀粉样多肽类似物）联合使用时效果也特别好，即使在低剂量下也能更大程度地减少饥饿感。我研究的总体目标是了解为什么偏向性 GLP-1R 激动剂无论是单独使用还是与胰岛淀粉样多肽类似物联合使用时都能有效减轻体重。充分了解其作用机制将有助于将这种方法发展为更好的肥胖治疗方法。我将解决三个主要研究问题： 1. 大脑中的哪些神经元对偏向的 GLP-1R 激动剂和胰淀素类似物有反应 - 它们是相同还是不同？这将通过测量不同的 GLP-1 和胰淀素类似物对小鼠进食行为和脑组织变化的影响来完成。 2. 神经元如何对偏向的 GLP-1R 激动剂和胰岛淀粉样多肽类似物作出反应——神经元本身内部发生了什么使它们能够减少饥饿？为了回答这个问题，我将生成一只转基因小鼠，其中受体本身附着有荧光分子，这意味着可以使用显微镜直接观察单个受体及其行为方式。3。偏向的 GLP-1R 激动剂和胰岛淀粉样多肽类似物如何与其受体发生物理相互作用，以及不同人群中发现的受体结构的自然遗传变异如何影响这种相互作用？为此，我将开发一种名为“深度突变扫描”的新技术，该技术允许在一次实验中测试数千种受体变异，这比基于单独测试每个变异的常规方法要快得多。这项工作将在伦敦帝国理工学院完成，但涉及与英国和国际上其他研究人员的合作。这些结果将是开发新的减肥治疗方法的重要一步，还将展示遗传差异如何影响药物的疗效，这意味着将来我们可能能够根据基因测试进行个体化治疗。实验的整体设计也应该适用于其他激素靶点，这意味着它可以在未来用于开发其他肥胖治疗方法。