Orally available selective melanocortin-4 receptor antagonists stimulate food intake and reduce cancer-induced cachexia in mice

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 4; no. 3; p. e4774
• Main Authors: Weyermann, Philipp, Dallmann, Robert, Magyar, Josef, Anklin, Corinne, Hufschmid, Martina, Dubach-Powell, Judith, Courdier-Fruh, Isabelle, Henneböhle, Marco, Nordhoff, Sonja, Mondadori, Cesare
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 19.03.2009; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adenocarcinoma; Adipocytes; Agouti-related protein; Animal behavior; Animals; Anorexia; Appetite; Blood-brain barrier; Body fat; Body mass; Body Weight; Body weight loss; Brain; Brain Chemistry; Cachexia; Cachexia - drug therapy; Cancer; Cell Line, Tumor; Chronic illnesses; Cytokines; Eating - drug effects; Energy expenditure; Female; Food; Food intake; Functional morphology; Homeostasis; Humans; Implantation; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Laboratories; Lean body mass; Male; Melanocortin; Melanocyte stimulating hormone; Metabolic syndrome; Metabolism; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Neoplasm Transplantation; Nervous system; Neuroscience/Neurobiology of Disease and Regeneration; Non-Clinical Medicine; Nutrition/Malnutrition; Oncology; Oral administration; Peptides; Pharmaceuticals; Pharmacology; Physiological aspects; Proteins; Random Allocation; Receptor, Melanocortin, Type 4 - antagonists & inhibitors; Regulation; Rodents; Switzerland

Cachexia is among the most debilitating and life-threatening aspects of cancer. It represents a metabolic syndrome affecting essential functional circuits involved in the regulation of homeostasis, and includes anorexia, fat and muscle tissue wasting. The anorexigenic peptide alpha-MSH is believed t...