Gut-brain communication of nutrient information

项目摘要/摘要 这个项目的长期目标是揭示肠道-脑轴如何在营养特定的食物中调节食欲。 举止。在哺乳动物中，胃肠道中的肠内分泌细胞释放一系列神经肽来 控制食物摄入量。然而，目前还不清楚营养物质是如何由肠道神经肽代表的。这个 这里概述的研究利用了解剖的简单性和强大的遗传工具包 来解决大量营养素--碳水化合物、氨基酸和脂肪酸--如何 转化为神经肽代码，以及营养信息是如何处理以调节食欲的。 拟议的研究重点是肠神经肽--它们代表什么常量营养素(目标1)，以及它们是否 它们是厌食性激素(目标2)。在目标3中，我们将检验这样一种假设，即厌氧症的水平 激素不仅代表氨基酸的数量，而且代表氨基酸的质量。这些研究的结果是 有望为大量营养素建立神经肽代码，提供对食物如何 摄入量是以特定于营养的方式进行调节的。这些见解与人类健康高度相关，因为 通过设计饮食减少食物摄入量可以为抗击肥胖流行病提供一种新的途径

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The long-term goal of this project is to uncover how the gut-brain axis regulates appetite in a nutrient-specific manner. In mammals, enteroendocrine cells in the gastrointestinal tract release a repertoire neuropeptides to regulate food intake. However, it is not clear how nutrients are represented by gut neuropeptides. The research outlined here takes advantage of the anatomical simplicity and the powerful genetic toolkit of the Drosophila to address the questions of how macronutrients — carbohydrates, amino acids and fatty acids — are transformed into a neuropeptide code and how nutritional information is processed to regulate appetite. The proposed study focuses on gut neuropeptide — what macronutrients they represent (Aim 1) and whether they are anorexigenic hormones (Aim 2). In Aim 3, we will test the hypothesis that the level of an anorexigenic hormone represents not only the quantity but also the quality of amino acids. Results from these studies are expected to establish a neuropeptide code for macronutrients providing mechanistic insights into how food intake is regulated in a nutrient-specific manner. These insights are highly relevant to human health as reducing food intake by designed diets could provide a new avenue to fight the obesity epidemic