Cornell, Iowa share $10.6 M obesity, hypertension NIH grant

ITHACA — A Cornell University researcher working with other researchers at the University of Iowa is part of a five-year, $10.6 million grant to study the role of the brain in links between obesity and high blood pressure, Cornell announced today.

More than two in three Americans are overweight or obese, and one in three Americans have high blood pressure, both of which lead to cardiovascular diseases. Obesity also contributes to diabetes, which further increases risk of cardiovascular disease, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). While researchers have long recognized the connection between obesity and hypertension, the causes behind these associations are not well understood, according to Cornell.

The “program project” grant, from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, part of the NIH, funds three separate but related projects that will focus on neural pathways and mechanisms in the brain that lead to obesity and obesity-induced hypertension, according to Cornell. Each of the studies will examine the effects of two hormones, angiotensin and leptin, and the role they play in the brain to regulate blood pressure and weight.

One of the three projects is led by Robin Davisson, a professor of molecular physiology at Cornell, who holds a joint appointment in biomedical sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine on the Ithaca campus and in cell and developmental biology at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) in New York City. The other two project leaders are from the University of Iowa.

“Both obesity and hypertension and the combination of the two are serious health problems worldwide,” Davisson said in a Cornell news release. “Our studies are going to lend insight into some of the very basic mechanisms that cause those diseases to occur. Ultimately, what we learn could lead to therapeutic interventions that are different than what we do today.”

Cornell says Davisson will be studying two different mechanisms within brain cells: the role of free radicals, unstable molecules that damage neighboring molecules and affect a cell’s function; and abnormal protein folding in regions of the brain that control blood pressure and body weight, respectively.

Davisson will work with colleagues at the Ithaca campus and at WCMC to investigate effects of the hormone angiotensin, which is over-expressed in high blood pressure and obesity and is believed to be an important factor in inducing both abnormal protein folding and increased free-radical production, according to Cornell. She will also examine the locations in the brain where these disruptive activities occur. Additionally, the hormone leptin may interact with angiotensin in these brain regions to create disease.

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