New insights into the drivers of appetite could lead to better weight-loss treatments
MEDICINE
It’s one of life’s great struggles: resisting the temptation to eat the entire box of doughnuts all at once. Well, it turns out that the secret to appetite control could lie in your sense of taste. That’s according to scientists at the University of California San Francisco, who have discovered that brain cells linked to our taste buds, not our guts, are the first line of defence against binge eating.
This finding could be used to develop weight-loss treatments that work better than semaglutide (a drug marketed as Ozempic or Wegovy).
It’s true that activity in your gut plays a key role in suppressing appetite. Experiments with mice suggest that the stomach and intestines send signals to cerebellar granule cells (CGC) in the brain, which can curb your appetite, but only after tens of minutes.
Another group of brain cells – known as prolactin-releasing hormone (PRLH) cells – linked to your taste buds can act in just seconds, however. Stimulated when you sense flavour in your mouth, these cells send two conflicting messages around the brain. One says: “This is good food! Eat more!”, while the other says: “Slow down or you’re going to be sick!�
