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Biotech / Medical : Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neil H who wrote (1)	11/8/2007 7:50:02 AM
From: H-nator	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2274

An interesting and relevant new paper in a top tier journal this week: Cell Metab. 2007 Nov;6(5):398-405. Serotonin 2C Receptor Agonists Improve Type 2 Diabetes via Melanocortin-4 Receptor Signaling Pathways. Zhou L, Sutton GM, Rochford JJ, Semple RK, Lam DD, Oksanen LJ, Thornton-Jones ZD,Clifton PG, Yueh CY, Evans ML, McCrimmon RJ, Elmquist JK, Butler AA, Heisler LK. The burden of type 2 diabetes and its associated premature morbidity and mortality is rapidly growing, and the need for novel efficacious treatments is pressing. We report here that serotonin 2C receptor (5-HT(2C)R) agonists, typically investigated for their anorectic properties, significantly improve glucose tolerance and reduce plasma insulin in murine models of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Importantly, 5-HT(2C)R agonist-induced improvements in glucose homeostasis occurred at concentrations of agonist that had no effect on ingestive behavior, energy expenditure, locomotor activity, body weight, or fat mass. We determined that this primary effect on glucose homeostasis requires downstream activation of melanocortin-4 receptors (MC4Rs), but not MC3Rs. These findings suggest that pharmacological targeting of 5-HT(2C)Rs may enhance glucose tolerance independently of alterations in body weight and that this may prove an effective and mechanistically novel strategy in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. PMID: 17983585 [PubMed - in process]