Starting this month Canadian and British scientists will begin collaborating on a study to examine human appetite- controlling hormones with a view to finding out what will increase PYY, a powerful hormone in the human body which dramatically diminishes appetite.
The hormone has been found to be deficient in obese individuals, and when administered to those who are overweight or obese, it significantly reduces appetite for several hours. Administering PYY by injection is impractical and expensive, so researchers have been searching for a drug that will mimic PYY or stimulate its release.
Dr. Michael Lyon, the Medical and Research Director for the Canadian Center for Functional Medicine, said searching for a drug or ingredient that could promote higher levels of PYY in overweight or obese individuals has become the 'Holy Grail' of obesity research.
"Finding this drug would be like coming up with a 'Prozac for Obesity'. It would be a way to decrease food cravings and overall appetite to the extent that weight loss would be comfortably achievable for all overweight or obese people - meaning that obesity for many would become a choice rather than a lifelong mandatory sentence," said Dr. Lyon, who will be heading the collaborative Canadian-British study.
Dr. Lyon and fellow researchers from the Canadian Center for Functional Medicine will collaborate with the University of Toronto, as well as the British researchers at the Imperial College of Medicine in London who published the breakthrough study on the appetite suppressing PYY hormone last year.
"We will be examining the effects of a unique polysaccharide, PolyGlycoplex (PGX) on PYY and other appetite controlling hormones. If we demonstrate that PGX fiber raises the PYY hormone better than placebo or regular food in overweight people, we will be one step closer to confirming that we have indeed uncovered a very important breakthrough in the management of weight problems," said Dr. Lyon. "What excites me is that PGX is not a drug, but a natural product that benefits the body in many ways."
Scientists at the Imperial College of Medicine in London England published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine last year demonstrating that the powerful hormone, peptide YY3-36 (PYY), was deficient in obese subjects and, when PYY was injected into these individuals, it radically diminished appetite. Following this study, pharmaceutical companies around the world began their search for a drug that would mimic or stimulate the production of PYY.