Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Boosting fat-burning by blocking Gq proteins

An international team of scientists has come one step closer to developing a way to melt off fat deposits. According to the article overweight people produce more white cells and no brown fat cells, “The white cells are responsible for bothersome fat deposits; conversely, the brown cells "burn off" unwanted pounds by releasing the energy stored in them in the form of heat.”   During the experiment it was “observed that there is a particularly high number of receptors in brown fat cells which bind to the Gq protein. The Gq protein performs an important function in information transfer.” The experiment consisted of activating the Gq protein in the mouse fat cells so the number and quality of the brown cells decreased.  At the end of the experiment, the team was able to discover a switch in the fat cells of mice and humans with which excess pounds can be burned off.
I chose to do a review on this article because it correlates with what we are doing in class, studying diabetes. Also, it is relevant to society because as the number of overweight people increases worldwide -- the risk of developing diabetes or cardiovascular disease becomes more of a reality. Therefore, many dream of an active substance which would simply melt off fat deposits. Now it is becoming a reality which is really exciting.
In my opinion, this article was not as strong as it could have been. However, one strength of the article, is that it was very informative, about this advancement. Another strength is the author identified what this means for the future. Although, the author does a great job of outline how the Gq protein is used, it would have been nice to have a quick summary identifying the Gq protein. Also, another improvement could be to go more in depth in the experiment specifically, I was a little unsure as to what happened.


Citation:

University of Bonn. "Boosting fat-burning by blocking Gq proteins." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 9


1 comment:

  1. Jeanne Chrisanthopoulos
    AP Biology Current Event 14
    Due Thursday, March 10th, 2016
    Boosting fat-burning by blocking Gq proteins
    I enjoyed how Rachel jumped right into what this article is about -- fat burning -- instead of opening with a long “hook.” The review was straight to the point, but it had the necessary information required to grasp the science behind releasing unwanted fat. However I do believe that Rachel could have written more than one paragraph in summary because the article itself was seven paragraphs long. Scientists are finding a way to burn off fat deposits by blocking Gq proteins, which allow the brown cells to convert fat into burnable energy. So by increasing the brown cells in humans, and decreasing the white cells (that store fat), unwanted fat can be burned and may help America’s obesity issues. It was interesting to read that brown cells had a high amount of receptors that bind to Gq, so if they are blocked the brown cells have time to mature. Within the summary Rachel quoted the article in a part that stated that Gq proteins are very important, but she did not explain why it is so important or what it even is. To enhance her article review she should have defined what it was using other sources; it was odd that she did not because she also pointed out that the article should have defined it. Gq proteins act as “molecular switches inside cells, and are involved in transmitting signals from a variety of stimuli outside a cell to its interior” (Wikipedia). Adding this definition to her review could have strengthened her work and helped the readers not get confused. I learned through my own research that Gq is activated when it binds to GTP, and inactivated when it is bound to GDP. Because activating Gq is what allowed the experiment to work, she should have also explained how it activates.
    I really enjoyed reading Rachel’s relevance paragraph where she states she chose this article because its correlation with diabetes relates to our class studies and the country; her reasons for choosing this article are why I chose this article in addition to the fact that fat-burning and weight loss are interesting to me. This article and review helped me realize that huge nationwide issues can be addressed and solved through small lab experiments. However it would have been nice if the article actually explained the experiments done to prove their findings. I enjoyed this article and review, but I do not think it had an impact on me that would change my life. If pills are created to burn this fat off of humans it could help humans lose weight, but it might actually be a disincentive to eat better and work out. So these diet pills that exist today are (in my opinion) not beneficial for society. The drugs they are working on would be the only drug to convert white cells directly to brown cells, so that would be interesting if it actually worked.





    University of Bonn. "Boosting fat-burning by blocking Gq proteins." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 9
    March 2016. .
    Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2016.
    .

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