Submitted by D.P. Juan on Wed, 29/04/2026 - 14:26
The Florian T. Merkle and Taufiq Rahman groups, led by the Clemence Blouet group, recently published an article in Cell Metabolism on Cav3.1, its role in sensing leucine, and its potential links to weight loss. Below is a short summary of the paper:
Eating a high-protein meal tends to keep you fuller for longer than a high-carb or high-fat meal. A new study published in Cell Metabolism, led by Clemence Blouet and co-authored by Florian Merkle and Taufiq Rahman in the Department of Pharmacology, sheds light on the mechanism of this well-known phenomenon. The researchers found that a protein called Cav3.1, which regulates the flow of calcium ions into nerve cells, also senses the amino acid leucine. Leucine is a building block of proteins, so when proteins are eaten, they're broken down into leucine and other building blocks that enter the bloodstream and reach the brain, thereby altering the activity of Cav3.1 in nerve cells that regulate appetite. The researchers used a combination of behavioural studies, gene knockouts, computational models, and human stem cell-derived nerve cells to support their conclusions. The discovery suggests that the brain has evolved a direct, fast-acting mechanism to detect protein intake and switch off hunger, and points to Cav3.1 as a promising new avenue for developing better obesity treatments.
You can read the article here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413126001117?via%...