Excerpt from UF Health Science Center News Article:
A growth factor used in clinical experiments to rescue dying brain cells in Parkinson patients may cause unwanted weight loss if delivered to specific areas of the brain, according to University of Florida researchers in the March online edition of Molecular Therapy.
The discovery is a cautionary warning for experimental treatments to treat Parkinson’s disease that use GDNF, short for glial line-derived neurotrophic growth factor.
In addition, the finding broadens understanding of the brain’s role in the regulation of metabolism and body weight, suggesting that gene therapy techniques in the brain potentially could control obesity.