A new hormone that fights weight gain from high-fat diets by normalising metabolism has been identified by researchers from USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.

With the world being more health- and weight-conscious, people are resorting to exercise and weight-loss regimes to stay in shape. Despite this, high-fat Western diets cause many people to gain weight, leading to health problems. But there’s good news now! Researchers from Leonard Davis School of Gerontology have identified a new hormone that fights weight gain from high-fat diets by normalising metabolism.

Hormones are believed to be signals for the body, triggering various physiological responses. The newly discovered hormone, dubbed "MOTS-c," primarily targets muscle tissue, where it restores insulin sensitivity, counteracting diet-induced and age-dependent insulin resistance.

"This represents a major advance in the identification of new treatments for age-related diseases such as diabetes," Pinchas Cohen, dean of the USC Davis school and senior author of a study on the research, said in a press statement.

The current study was used to test the effects of MOTS-c. For this, the researchers injected the hormone into mice fed a high-fat diet, which typically causes them to grow obese and develop a resistance to insulin. The injections not only suppressed both effects in mice, it also reversed age-dependent insulin-resistance, a condition that precedes diabetes.

"This discovery sheds new light on mitochondria and positions them as active regulators of metabolism," said Changhan Lee, assistant professor at USC Davis and lead author of the study.

The new hormone is believed to be encoded in the DNA of mitochondria, known as the “powerhouses” of the cells that convert food into energy. Other hormones are encoded in DNA in the nucleus. The researchers said that though most of the experiments to test the effects of this hormone were conducted on lab mice, the mechanism that resulted in this phenomenon also exists in all mammals, including humans. The researchers also pointed out that the MOTS-c intellectual property has been licensed to a biotechnology company, and clinical trials in humans could begin within the next three years.

Findings of this research were published in the journal Cell Metabolism. This research was funded by National Institutes of Health, a Glenn Award, an Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar Award, and a SC-CTSI grant.

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