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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new class of anti-obesity drugs that suppress appetite through receptors in the brain could affect visual development in children.
Scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology carried out the study to learn more about how the drugs affect a process called "experience dependent cortical plasticity" -- the adaptive re-wiring of the brain that comes from experience. It is crucial to proper neural development in young animals and humans.
The appetite suppressing receptors are called cannabinoid receptors. They control the plasticity and also regulate signaling among neurons in the visual cortex.
The researchers looked at the drug rimonabant (Acomplia). Findings suggest obesity drugs that block the cannabinoid receptors severely disrupted the cortical plasticity in young mice, so researchers believe they may have the same effect on human children.
As a result, the scientists are urging caution in using these drugs on overweight children.
Sanofi-Aventis, the company that makes Acomplia, is awaiting FDA approval for its use in the United States. Other pharmaceutical companies have similar drugs in development.
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SOURCE: Neuron, 2008;58
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