New molecules decrease appetite and protect the brain against diseases

Scientists on the team of Dr Lenka Maletínská have developed a promising new compound derived from one of the peptides naturally occurring in the brain. Its application may contribute to the addressing of two major health challenges of the modern days: obesity and Alzheimer's disease. The neuropeptide CART is primarily associated with the regulation of food intake. Its modified version, created at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, shows better stability and is more effective. It suppresses appetite and protects the brain by reducing the pathogenicity of the tau protein, which is associated with the dreaded Alzheimer's disease. The results of the research have been published in the European Journal of Pharmacology.

The new compound has successfully passed tests in both cell culture and animal models. Mice that were obese and prone to diabetes lost weight after its administration, and it turned out that they also exhibited reduced pathology of the dangerous tau protein, one of the main symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, in their brains. The modified molecule is effective in the body thanks to a process called lipidization. This means that the scientists have bound various fatty acids to the natural peptide CART and found that the modified peptide is able to cross the blood-brain barrier. This is a crucial precondition for the drug to work properly in the brain.

"We have found that when a lipidized analogue of the CART peptide is applied subcutaneously, it then passes into the brain, where it acts by suppressing appetite and, if administered for a long time, also has a neuroprotective effect. It could therefore work in the treatment or prevention of neurodegenerative diseases," explains the first author of the study Vilém Charvát.

Read the full press release here.

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