A group of researchers from the Biomedical Research Institute of Malaga (Ibima) has identified in the hypothalamus a receptor of endogenous lipids - the CB2 - whose presence in that area of ​​the brain would be related to the control of weight and blood glucose.

The study, whose principal researcher is Javier Bermúdez Silva, is being carried out in the Regenerative Medicine Laboratory of the Regional Hospital of Malaga, and has the collaboration of researchers from the Institute of Neurosciences (Mixed Center of the CSIC and of the Miguel Hernández UniversityDe Elche) led by Jorge Manzanares, the Board reported today in a statement.

Experimental work has been carried out in animal models, modified by genetic engineering, to which the CB2 receiver was stimulated.

The results showed that those animal models that expressed a greater amount of the receiver at the brain level were thinner and had a greater ease of developing diabetes.

These findings open a new route of research by suggesting that this receiver could be a target to take into account for the future development of drugs against diabetes.

The existence of this lipid receiver was known in immune fabrics such as the spleen or bone marrow, but so far its presence in the related brain zone was not known, among other things, with the control of food intake.

The work has been published in the "Journal of Neuroendocrinology", the official magazine of the British Society of Neuroendocrinology and the European Association and the International Federation of the Specialty.

The group of researchers continues in this line of work to deepen the knowledge of the role that this recipient plays in diabetes and how its activation or blocking could be used to treat the associated obesity and diabetes.

The research lines of this group include the study of this recipient and others related - such as the GPR55 - in the operation of the pancreatic islets (the functional units responsible for the secretion of insulin) in diabetes, with a view to looking for new therapeutic pathwaysthat complement the current ones.

The work has been developed for three years and has had different financing funds from the Carlos III Health Institute and the European Union.