GDF15 tagged posts

Forgetting the name of a loved one may be one of the first signs people notice of dementia, but it’s rarely the first warning sign your brain gives. Changes in the brain that lead to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia start showing up decades before symptoms arrive, and the chemicals at work inside the body can often tip us off to these changes well ahead of time.

A recent study found that a blood protein called GDF15, which is released when cells are under stress, could serve as one of the earliest warning signs of dementia. After tracking more than half a million people for 15–25 years, researchers discovered that those with higher GDF15 levels before age 55 were significantly more likely to develop dementia later in life...

GFRAL-expressing neurons (yellow cells) are found exclusively in the brainstem (pictured), and form the ’emergency circuit’ of body weight regulation. Credit: NGM Bio

Insights enable the discovery of multiple drug candidates for obesity and cachexia. Scientists at NGM Bio have revealed deep insights into the role that a little-understood human hormone plays in regulating body weight. Named Growth and Differentiation Factor 15 (GDF15), this hormone is typically active only when the body experiences acute or prolonged stress, including following exposure to tissue-damaging toxins, such as chemotherapy, or during chronic disease, such as obesity or cancer...