A study conducted by researchers from the http://en.vhir.org/portal1/grup-equip.asp?t=diabetes-y-metabolismo&s=recerca&contentid=186789 Diabetes and Metabolism group of the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) has determined that the role of the MTERF4 protein is essential for the proper function of mitochondria (cellular organelles responsible for energy production) in brown adipose tissue and that the pharmacological activation of this tissue improves the homeostasis of glucose and reduces body weight. This finding indicates that brown adipose tissue, a tissue specialized in the production of heat, could be a good therapeutic target to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity. The results of the study have been published in the journal https://www.sciencedirect.com/user/chooseorg?targetURL=/science/article/abs/pii/S0925443919300250" Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Molecular Basis of Disease. In this study, the researchers, led by Dr. Josep A. Villena, sought to determine whether the activity of brown adipose tissue plays a decisive role in the onset of obesity and type 2 diabetes, the most common among the population. The researchers focused their study on the MTERF4 protein, whose role in brown adipose tissue was completely unknown, although it had been suggested that it might be involved in the translation of mitochondrial proteins. In collaboration with researchers from the Neuromuscular and Mitochondrial Pathology group of the VHIR and thanks to the animal models provided by Dr. Nils-Göran Larsson, of the Max Planck Institute of Biology and Aging in Germany, the researchers have precisely defined the function of MTERF4 in brown adipose tissue. "We observed that when this protein is missing, the brown adipose tissue cells stop producing some mitochondrial proteins, specifically those responsible for the production of energy that are encoded by the mitochondrial genome. As a consequence, the brown adipose tissue becomes dysfunctional and does not can generate heat from the oxidation of fats, which makes the mice are thermosensitive and are unable to maintain their body temperature when exposed to cold," explains Dr. Villena, head of the Metabolism and Obesity laboratory within the group of research in Diabetes and Metabolism of the VHIR and the CIBER of Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Diseases (CIBERDEM).The study shows that the MTERF4 protein is essential for mitochondrial function in brown adipose tissue. New therapeutic target to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity Human studies show that patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes or prediabetes have a lower activity of brown adipose tissue. To test whether brown adipose tissue could be a good pharmacological target to treat diabetes and obesity, the researchers administered brown adipose tissue-activating drugs to obese prediabetic animals. The administration of the drug for three weeks significantly reduced the body weight of the control animals and markedly improved their glucose metabolism. In contrast, the drug did not produce any improvement in body weight or prediabetes in those animals in which the lack of MTERF4 prevented the activation of brown adipose tissue. "Our study shows that the inactivation of brown adipose tissue does not predispose to the development of metabolic diseases, at least in the medium term, but most importantly, the results clearly indicate that brown adipose tissue could be an excellent therapeutic target for treatment. of diabetes and obesity in humans, as long as we manage to find the drugs that allow it to be activated in a specific, sustained manner and without any side effects in other organs," says Dr. Villena.The study has counted with the participation of the research group in Neuromuscular and Mitochondrial Pathology of the VHIR and the CIBER of Rare Diseases (CIBERER), the Department of Physiopathology (CIMUS) of the University of Santiago de Compostela and the CIBER of Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBEROBN), and the CIEMAT (Center for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research) of Madrid.