Cellular Pathways on Brain Control of Energy Metabolism

Dear Colleagues,

The global obesity pandemic receives increasing attention both in the academic community and in the general population. The success of anti-obesity drugs of GLP1 antagonists further fuels a public interest in obesity and developing effective anti-obesity therapies. This serves as a great momentum driving research to delineate molecular, cellular, and physiological mechanisms underlying obesity pathogenesis and progression. Obesity arises from an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure, and the brain, particularly hypothalamic neurocircuits, integrates nutrient and metabolic signals to control energy balance, body weight, and metabolic homeostasis. In line with this notion, approximately 95% of obesity-associated genetic variants regulate the function and activity of the central nervous system (CNS). It has been long noticed that impairment in the CNS sensing of metabolic hormones and/or nutrients, such as leptin resistance, insulin resistance, and defective glucose-sensing, is associated with energy imbalance and obesity and perhaps play a causal role in disease progression. Excitingly, there is a knowledge explosion in our understanding of signal transduction pathways, neural transmissions, epigenetic reprogramming, neural plasticity and remodeling, and neural sensing and integration, which act coordinately to control body weight and metabolism in health and disease. Growing evidence supports the notion that glial cells profoundly influence the activity of energy balance circuits and play an important role in the development of obesity and metabolic syndrome. Aside from classic interactions between the CNS and the endocrine system, numerous peripheral cells, including adipocytes, immune cells, gut cells, and liver cells, to name a few, produce metabolites and endocrine factors that feed the CNS and carry nutritional and metabolic information to the brain. Additionally, the gut microbiome profoundly influences CNS activity and its ability to control energy balance, body weight, and metabolism. This Special Issue serves as a forum to address these intriguing topics, centered on, but not limited to, metabolic and energy balance neurocircuits, the underlying molecular mechanisms shaping circuit activation in health and disease, and the brain–peripheral tissue axis that defends body weight and metabolic homeostasis. We invite you to contribute reviews and original research articles to our endeavor.

Prof. Dr. Liangyou Rui
Guest Editor

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• energy balance neurocircuit
• molecular pathways governing energy balance neurocircuits
• gut–brain axis in obesity
• neuroinflammation in obesity and metabolic disease
• neural sensing of metabolites and hormones