Editorial: leptin resistance in metabolic disorders: possible mechanisms and treatments

Editorial on the Research Topic

Leptin Resistance in Metabolic Disorders: Possible Mechanisms and Treatments

The steadily increasing prevalence of obesity in the last five decades is a serious global health threat, representing a major risk factor for diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia, i. e., metabolic syndrome. A seminal finding to the understanding of the mechanisms leading to body weight dysregulation and the onset of obesity was the discovery of leptin, from the Greek term leptos (thin), identified by Friedman and collaborators at The Rockefeller University in 1994 ( 1 ). Leptin exerts its anti-obesity action by inhibiting food intake and inducing energy expenditure ( 2 ). This effect was demonstrated in leptin-deficient individuals and raised expectations regarding its potential as a drug to reduce body weight in obese patients ( 3 ). However, obese patients and mice display high levels of circulating leptin ( 4 ) and do not respond to leptin treatment, a condition known as leptin resistance ( 5 ) with underlying mechanisms that have not yet been fully elucidated ( 6 ).

This study presents five review articles which discuss the latest findings on the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie leptin resistance and which propose potential therapeutic strategies to overcome this condition.

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9. Nazarians-Armavil A, Menchella JA, Belsham DD. Cellular insulin resistance disrupts leptin-mediated control of neuronal signaling and transcription. Mol Endocrinol (2013) 27: 990–1003. doi: 10. 1210/me. 2012-1338

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