A research team at Queen Mary University of London has uncovered that bombesin, a neurohormone responsible for appetite regulation in humans, has an evolutionary history dating back over half a billion years.
Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) USA, the study reveals that this satiety-inducing peptide is not exclusive to humans and vertebrates—it is also found in starfish and other marine invertebrates.
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Bombesin plays a crucial role in hunger regulation, signaling when the body has had enough food. However, this discovery suggests that bombesin-like neurohormones were influencing appetite in ancient species long before vertebrates appeared on Earth.
This breakthrough provides valuable insights into the evolutionary origins of appetite control and could have implications for future obesity and metabolic research.
Despite its suggestive name, bombesin’s moniker comes from a less dramatic source: the fire-bellied toad (Bombina bombina). Scientists first isolated the peptide from the toad’s skin in 1971. Notably, when administered to mammals, bombesin was observed to decrease food consumption and increase the time between meals. This discovery led to the hypothesis that bombesin-like neurohormones, produced within the body, are involved in controlling food intake. Building on this, researchers are now developing bombesin-mimicking compounds as a potential treatment for obesity, alongside existing weight-loss medications like Ozempic.
Professor Maurice Elphick and his team at Queen Mary University of London, in collaboration with Dr Olivier Mirabeau at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, set out to explore the evolutionary history of bombesin. By analyzing the genomes of invertebrate animals, they discovered genes encoding bombesin-like neurohormones in the common starfish (Asterias rubens) and other echinoderms, such as sea urchins and sea cucumbers.
“It was a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack,” said Professor Elphick, “but eventually we discovered genes encoding a bombesin-like neurohormone in the genomes of starfish and their relatives.”
The team then turned their attention to the function of this starfish bombesin, named ArBN. Using mass spectrometry, collaborators at the University of Warwick determined the molecular structure of ArBN, allowing it to be chemically synthesized and tested.
The discovery of bombesin’s ancient role in appetite regulation sheds light on the evolutionary origins of feeding behavior in animals. “We can infer that this function extends back half-a-billion years to the common ancestor of starfish, humans, and other vertebrates,” said Professor Elphick.
