Tue Oct 31, 1:51 PM ET
A team of French and Swiss scientists said they had discovered a hunger gene in mice that could pave the way for treatments for obesity or alcoholism.
Researchers at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland and the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg, France, found that the gene allows the body to detect the sensation of hunger before meals, the Swiss university said in a statement.
The research based on laboratory tests in mice was published in the scientific journal Current Biology, it added.
The gene called "Per 2" acts throughout the body and on the brain, generating signals warning of hunger, partly based on a notion of time, the university said.
The biochemists, Urs Albrecht, a professor at Fribourg and Etienne Challet of the Louis Pasteur University, managed to diminish and even cut off the signals of hunger in their experiments.
Mice that had modified forms of the gene were unable to detect hunger until they were confronted with food, while those with the normal gene started searching for food shortly before they were due for a meal.
The findings on a link between the timing of meals and the sensation of hunger was a "very promising" avenue to explore for treatments for "surplus weight, sleeping disorders, depression or alcoholism," the statement said.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse.
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