Protein, amino acids and obesity treatment

Abstract

Dietary proteins have been used for years to treat obesity. Body weight loss is beneficial when it concerns fat mass, but loss of fat free mass - especially muscle might be detrimental. This occurs because protein breakdown predominates over synthesis, thus administering anabolic dietary compounds like proteins might counter fat free mass loss while allowing for fat mass loss.Indeed, varying the quantity of proteins will decrease muscle anabolic response and increase hyperphagia in rodents fed a low protein diet; but it will favor lean mass maintenance and promote satiety, in certain age groups of humans fed a high protein diet. Beyond protein quantity, protein source is an important metabolic regulator: whey protein and plant based diets exercize favorable effects on the risk of developing obesity, body composition, metabolic parameters or fat free mass preservation of obese patients. Specific amino-acids like branched chain amino acids (BCAA), methionine, tryptophan and its metabolites, and glutamate can also positively influence parameters and complications of obesity especially in rodent models, with less studies translating this in humans.Tuning the quality and quantity of proteins or even specific amino-acids can thus be seen as a potential therapeutic intervention on the body composition, metabolic syndrome parameters and appetite regulation of obese patients. Since these effects vary across age groups and much of the data comes from murine models, long-term prospective studies modulating proteins and amino acids in the human diet are needed.

Keywords: Amino acids; BCAA; Methionine; Obesity; Proteins quality and quantity; Tryptophan.

Fig. 1

Amino-acid sensing and the mTOR pathway – adapted from Green et al. and Wyant et al. MTORC1: mechanistic target of rapamycin complex one; IRS: insulin receptor substrate protein; PI3K: phosphoinositide 3-kinase; AKT: protein kinase B. AA amino-acid, TSC tuberous sclerosis complex. Figure constructed using the Biorender software

Fig. 2

impact of tryptophan restriction or imbalance on weight gain, glucose tolerance, body composition, energy expenditure, macrophage polarization, food intake and behavior. Figure constructed using the Biorender software