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Biotech / Medical : Regeneron Pharmaceuticals -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (358)	1/3/2000 6:58:00 PM
From: Miljenko Zuanic	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3557

GO Leptin, GO... as long as Axokine is on your back! Amgen's Leptin Decreases Pleasure of Eating, New Research Says Amgen's Leptin Decreases Pleasure of Eating, New Research Says Washington, Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Amgen Inc.'s experimental weight-loss hormone leptin appears to work by decreasing the pleasure of eating and increasing the enjoyment of other activities, according to new research conducted in mice. The study, to be published next week in the journal Science, may give insight into the way the drug lowers weight. Unlike Roche Holding AG's new diet drug Xenical, which works by blocking the body's ability to process fat, leptin appears to work by changing behavior. Researchers at Concordia University in Montreal compared mice who had been placed on a restricted-calorie diet with mice who coupled the low-calories diet with leptin injections. Those mice were then hooked up to a device that pleasurably stimulated specific regions of the brain when certain levers were pushed. Low-calorie diets enhanced pleasure in one of those brain regions, the researchers said, and hungry mice were likely to press the corresponding lever more frequently. Mice injected with leptin, however, pressed that lever less often than those who didn't receive the hormone, which the researchers said was an indication that leptin dulls the neurological ''reward'' of eating. At the same time, mice injected with leptin were more likely than other hungry mice to press levers that stimulated parts of the brain that have nothing to do with hunger. Thousand Oaks, California-based Amgen has begun human testing of the drug, which must be injected, for use in seriously overweight patients. Leptin -- sought for decades -- is a natural hormone made by fat cells that helps regulate body weight by sending signals to the central nervous system to depress hunger and appetite while increasing metabolism.