ESPE Yearbook of Paediatric Endocrinology

J Cell Rep. 2021 Mar 23;34(12):108862. 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.108862. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33761344/This study demonstrates that MC4R variants found in humans affect receptor endocytosis, trafficking and dimerization and thus reveal multiple cellular mechanisms involved in weight regulation. The findings contributes to our und...

Nat Med, 2021 Jun;27(6):1088–1096. 10.1038/s41591-021-01349-y. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34045736/This paper reports the high prevalence of MC4R loss-of-function (LoF) variants in a normal population and their large impact on longitudinally assessed anthropometric traits from birth to young adult life.Th...

To read the full abstract: Cell 2019;177 (3):59–-607.e9. PMID 31002796.A recent GWAS showed that the heritability of thinness was comparable to that of obesity (1). Some loci showed effects across the entire BMI distribution. This is also true for variants in MC4R. The present study analyzed data on ˜0.5 million people from UK Biobank, with a focus on 61 nonsynonymous var...

To read the full abstract: PLoS Genet. 2019; 15(1):e1007603.This genome wide association study reveals new insights into the genetic basis of thinness by investigating a large cohort of healthy persistently thin individuals. In the past, it has been speculated that inheritance of thinness may constitute a protective factor against environmental factors disposing to obesity (1). Neverthel...

Brief summary: The authors provide the first description of antagonistic hormone mutations as the cause of congenital disease in humans. The paper describes detailed characterizations of two novel, antagonistic leptin mutations underlying a formerly unrecognized form of congenital leptin dysfunction and delineate the challenges these mutations pose to the diagnosis and therapy of the disease.After the initial description of biologically inactive leptin v...

Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2020 Dec;8(12):960–970.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33137293/This article reports the results of two single-arm, open-label, multicentre, phase 3 trials of the MC4R agonist, setmelanotide, in patients with severe obesity due to pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) deficiency or leptin receptor (LEPR) deficiency. Mean % change in bodyweight after ~1 year was &#8722...

N Engl J Med. 2021;385(17):1581-92. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2103329.PubMed ID: 34614324Brief Summary: The authors performed whole exome sequencing in 2548 children with severe obesity and identified 22 GNAS mutation carriers, almost all of which disrupted melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) signaling.The gene GNAS encodes the stimulatory G-protein alpha subunit pr...

To read the full abstract: Nat Comm 2019; 10(1): 1718Steroid receptor coactivator (SRC)-1 mediates nuclear hormone receptors and transcription factor-dependent transcription (1), and interacts with STAT3 (2) an important mediator of leptin-induced POMC expression and hence satiety (3). Src-1 knockout mice are obese (4), however, the underlying mechanism is unclear. In a...

To read the full abstract: Mol Metab. 2017 Oct; 6(10): 1321–1329See comment on 11.7...

To read the full abstract: Nat Med 2018, May;24(5):551-555[Comments on 1.1, 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7] All four here presented articles have monogenic obesity as their theme. While patients with monogenic obesity are rare, these individuals bear a heavy disease burden. Furthermore, these...