European journal of molecular biology and biochemistry

LEPTIN AND ITS EMERGING CLINICAL APPLICATIONS IN OBESITY AND HIV

Ramji Lal Agarwal, Ajay Kumar, Matin Ahmad Khan*, Uma Shankar Singh, Shubhshish Sircar, Kumar Biswas, Binod Kumar, Jakka Srinivas Rao, Indrajeet Kumar, Neelam Agarwal, Pramod Kumar

mak5962@hotmail.com

Leptin, Obesity, Human physiology.

Leptin is a complex adiposity signal that kick started the surge of obesity research and has provided a new word „diabeticity which means people suffering from obesity and diabetics).Probably the biggest breakthrough for the study of appetite regulation came in 1994 when the molecular geneticist Jeffrey Friedman discovered the adiposity signal leptin. Using the ob/ob mice which were thought to lack a satiety signal, Friedman and colleagues found 'ob' to code for a gene which they called leptin, after the Greek word „leptos‟ meaning thin. Mice deficient in this gene are morbidly obese and this obesity can be reversed by giving the mice leptin. The leptin receptor was subsequently found in 1995 and is a member of the cytokine receptor family. Leptin has pioneered the concept that adipose tissue is not an inert energy storage organ but an active endocrine organ. Subsequent clinical trials led to initial disappointment, however, when leptin was eventually found to be ineffective for the treatment of obesity Research efforts have since expanded to elucidating leptin's role in human physiology and have resulted in a fundamentally renewed understanding of its role in regulation of energy homeostasis, neuroendocrine function, and metabolism, mainly in states of energy deficiency and not energy excess (i.e. obesity). In this review, we summarize the biology and physiology of leptin, its role in the pathophysiology of several disorders, and the emerging therapeutic applications of recombinant human leptin. Leptin therapy in human recombinant form has recently been used in HIV-associated lipodystrophy syndrome on experimental basis in some small short-term clinical trials