New way to burn fat fast: Scientists find breakthrough protein to boost weight loss – The Times of India

The process of losing weight is more than what catches the eye. Active lifestyle and healthy eating habits facilitate it, but some internal mechanisms may also be at play when it comes to managing metabolism and speeding up weight loss. A new study has found a new way to burn fat which could help people deal with obesity and many related health issues.
Guadalupe Sabio, head of the Organ Crosstalk in Metabolic Diseases Group at the National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), and Cintia Folgueira, from CNIO and the National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) have found a new mechanism by which the body burns brown fat and converts it into heat. This can speed up the fat burning and protect against obesity-related diseases, according to a study published in Nature Communications.

Discovery of the fat-burning protein

Scientists involved in the study researched how the removal of mitochondrial protein called MCJ in mice, which plays a role in energy production within cells, elevated the heat production which in tun led to significant weight loss. The fat tissue lacking the MCJ protein was transplanted in them to show that the protein played critical role in regulating body weight and metabolism.

Brown fat and obesity

“Obesity is the result of either excessive food intake or inadequate total energy expenditure. We now know that adipose tissue –body fat–, in addition to storing energy, plays a crucial role in the management of that energy by the body. Adipose tissue is a complex organ that acts as a regulator of the whole body’s metabolism, and therefore modulating its function could well be a way to combat obesity,” the authors write in Nature Communications.

What are brown adipose tissues?

Brown fat, also called brown adipose tissue, is a type of body fat that keeps you warm when you get cold. It also stores energy and aids in the burning of calories. Brown fat is activated right before you start shivering. Brown fat borrows its distinct hue from the several tiny cellular organs, called mitochondria, it harbours. Mitochondria converts sugar and fat into energy, but in brown fat, they switch to producing heat when triggered by temperature.
Another type of fat tissue is white adipose tissue which mostly stores energy. Brown fat tissue is responsible for heat generation or thermogenesis in the body.
A study published in the journal Cell demonstrated how brown fat breaks down amino acids to provide important nutrients that protect blood sugar metabolism.
Many studies establish that activating brown fat protects against obesity and metabolic disease.
The researchers in the study aimed to understand how they could develop a new mechanism for tackling obesity involving the burning of brown fat.

How to burn brown fat

Sabio and Folgueira’s research finds ways to remove MCJ protein from obese mice so that these animals produce more heat and lose weight.
The research discovered that when the MCJ protein is removed from obese mice, more heat is produced which results in weight loss. In addition, transplanting brown fat without the MCJ protein into the animals was sufficient to reduce their weight.

How this latest discovery would help in preventing obesity and related disorders

Scientists found that animals without MCJ in brown fat were shielded against health problems caused by obesity be it type 2 diabetes, increased blood lipids etc. The protein is believed to prevent a range of chronic disorders.
“This protection is due to the activation of an essential signaling pathway to adapt to the stress caused by obesity. Known as the catabolic pathway, it causes an increase in the consumption of fats, sugars, and proteins to produce heat in brown fat. It is a mechanism that also happens in people with very active brown fat,” explains CNIO researcher Beatriz Cicuéndez, the lead author of the study.
The new study offers a novel way to deal with obesity and many associated problems. However, further human studies would be required to assess how this protein could be blocked in obese people.