Breaking the link between food and anxiety to treat anorexia nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is a disorder where patients are so afraid of eating that they often starve to death.

While initial research focused on psychology, recent data suggest that metabolic signaling also contributes to the development and maintenance of anorexia nervosa. However, it is unclear how these psychological and metabolic mechanisms affect one another.

We will identify the metabo-psychology connection in anorexia nervosa and reveal how it can be manipulated to help patients eat without being anxious. We have discovered that food intake is regulated by the molecular nutrient sensor OGT.

OGT mediates satiation by storing calorie-dependent memories, ‘caloric memories,’ of the communication between PVNaCaMKII neurons and other parts of the brain.

Perturbing these memories makes food unsatisfying and produces debilitating anxiety, dramatically affecting body weight.

Our data suggest that manipulating caloric memory can treat anorexia nervosa by breaking the link between food and anxiety.

In a clinical trial with patients under compulsory care we will reveal how connections between caloric signaling and anxiety affect food intake in anorexia nervosa; in mice we will uncover the mechanism by which OGT stores caloric memories.

These experiments will make it possible to manipulate caloric memories to break the link between food and anxiety in anorexia nervosa – novel and essential help in the treatment of this disease.