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CNN Live Today

'Daily Dose'

Aired January 16, 2003 - 11:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Trying to unlock the genetic key to obesity, scientists are focusing attention to worms. It may actually lead to future treatments for obesity in humans.
And our medical news correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here with our "Daily Dose" of health news.

Worms today?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It sounds bizarre, but you and I share many, many genes with worms. Who would have known, because 600 million years ago, we had a common ancestor. Scientists thinking, a lot of obesity probably has a genetic cause. People think people are fat, because they eat too much, but there are probably many genetic causes for human obesity. So scientists took a look at worms in Mass General Hospital in Massachusetts, and then turned on and off 400 genes. When they turned the genes on, sometimes the worms got fatter. And then when they turned other genes on, the mice got thinner. So they said these genes obviously have something to do with obesity.

Now, it's very interesting, because scientists have also done this with mice. They've actually done genetic engineering to create really fat mice and really thin mice.

You can see here, there's a regular mouse on the right, and there's a fat mouse, and all they did was alter his genes to make him fat. The hope is that researchers one day will be able to come up with drugs that can work on human genes to make us thinner.

HARRIS: OK, so how long would it take for that to -- I guess that technology to make it from whatever petri or whatever they got the worms growing in to humans.

COHEN: Eight to 10 years in this case. I mean, in order to take what they've learned about these worms and to put it into practice and make a drug for human beings, the researcher I talked to said, we talked to eight to 10 years. This is going to be a while.

HARRIS: Weight is such a complicated issue. It combines problems people have with exercise along with what they eat and how much of it they do eat. So why is it the genetic approach is so important.

COHEN: The genetic approach is important, because as you said, there are so many different causes of obesity. There are many, many genes that regulate obesity, and what they're trying to find as many of them as possible, so that then they can make drugs.

For example, some people have genetic problems that their brain is always telling them you're hungry, you're hungry, even if they're not. That's one genetic problem. And other people have genetic problems with their body for some reason stores more fat than it actually needs to. So the goal here is to come up with as many genes as possible so you have as many targets to try out.

HARRIS: OK, we've got to go, but I've to ask you, how fat is a fat worm?

COHEN: These worms...

HARRIS: What point does a worm realize he's got a weight problem?

COHEN: They were only one millimeter long. They're tiny, so you'd really have to be a researcher looking under a microscope to see if it's fat or thin, but they could tell.

HARRIS: Good deal. I have in my mind the movie "Tremors," a worm so big to eat a car, that one's got a weight problem.

COHEN: Nothing that big.

HARRIS: OK, thank you, Elizabeth Cohen.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired January 16, 2003 - 11:36   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Trying to unlock the genetic key to obesity, scientists are focusing attention to worms. It may actually lead to future treatments for obesity in humans.
And our medical news correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here with our "Daily Dose" of health news.

Worms today?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It sounds bizarre, but you and I share many, many genes with worms. Who would have known, because 600 million years ago, we had a common ancestor. Scientists thinking, a lot of obesity probably has a genetic cause. People think people are fat, because they eat too much, but there are probably many genetic causes for human obesity. So scientists took a look at worms in Mass General Hospital in Massachusetts, and then turned on and off 400 genes. When they turned the genes on, sometimes the worms got fatter. And then when they turned other genes on, the mice got thinner. So they said these genes obviously have something to do with obesity.

Now, it's very interesting, because scientists have also done this with mice. They've actually done genetic engineering to create really fat mice and really thin mice.

You can see here, there's a regular mouse on the right, and there's a fat mouse, and all they did was alter his genes to make him fat. The hope is that researchers one day will be able to come up with drugs that can work on human genes to make us thinner.

HARRIS: OK, so how long would it take for that to -- I guess that technology to make it from whatever petri or whatever they got the worms growing in to humans.

COHEN: Eight to 10 years in this case. I mean, in order to take what they've learned about these worms and to put it into practice and make a drug for human beings, the researcher I talked to said, we talked to eight to 10 years. This is going to be a while.

HARRIS: Weight is such a complicated issue. It combines problems people have with exercise along with what they eat and how much of it they do eat. So why is it the genetic approach is so important.

COHEN: The genetic approach is important, because as you said, there are so many different causes of obesity. There are many, many genes that regulate obesity, and what they're trying to find as many of them as possible, so that then they can make drugs.

For example, some people have genetic problems that their brain is always telling them you're hungry, you're hungry, even if they're not. That's one genetic problem. And other people have genetic problems with their body for some reason stores more fat than it actually needs to. So the goal here is to come up with as many genes as possible so you have as many targets to try out.

HARRIS: OK, we've got to go, but I've to ask you, how fat is a fat worm?

COHEN: These worms...

HARRIS: What point does a worm realize he's got a weight problem?

COHEN: They were only one millimeter long. They're tiny, so you'd really have to be a researcher looking under a microscope to see if it's fat or thin, but they could tell.

HARRIS: Good deal. I have in my mind the movie "Tremors," a worm so big to eat a car, that one's got a weight problem.

COHEN: Nothing that big.

HARRIS: OK, thank you, Elizabeth Cohen.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com