A UCLA study conducted with mice has found that a gene called reprimo, which is expressed by certain neurons in the brain, may play a role in menopause-related weight gain, a phenomenon not linked to increased eating. Their findings were featured in the paper, ‘Hypothalamic oestrogen receptor alpha establishes a sexually dimorphic regulatory node of energy expenditure’, published in Nature Metabolism.

Apollo Endosurgery has announced that the FDA has completed the review of the final Post-Approval Study (PAS) Report for the ORBERA Intragastric Balloon System and accepted that all post-approval study requirements have been fulfilled. The ORBERA Post Approval Study was a requirement following the US FDA's approval of ORBERA in August of 2015. The study was a multi-centre, open label, prospective study with a primary safety endpoint and its secondary endpoint being effectiveness. All study endpoints were successfully met.

Researchers from in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and UofL Health, James Graham Brown Cancer Center at the University of Louisville, have published an article which proposes a unique theory that a protein secreted by fat cells drives the development of breast cancer.

The behaviour of previous coronaviruses together with physiological characteristics of diabetes may help explain why people with diabetes have a higher risk of developing COVID-19, a respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, according to a paper, ‘COVID-19 Pandemic, Corona Viruses, and Diabetes Mellitus’, published in the American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Enara Health, a developer of a technology-powered personalised weight loss programme, is expanding telehealth availability of its programme to all residents in California, Texas and Illinois. This rollout represents an earlier-than-planned first stage of a US rollout of the Enara Health platform, a clinical weight loss programme that takes a multi-faceted approach to obesity treatment.