Glucagon control on food intake and energy balance
Glucagon exerts pleiotropic actions on energy balance and has emerged as an attractive target for the treatment of diabetes and obesity in the last few years. Glucagon reduces body weight and adiposity by suppression of appetite and by modulation of lipid metabolism. Moreover, this hormone promotes weight loss by activation of energy expenditure and thermogenesis. In this review, we cover these metabolic actions elicited by glucagon beyond its canonical regulation of glucose metabolism. In addition, we discuss recent developments of therapeutic approaches in the treatment of obesity and diabetes by dual- and tri-agonist molecules based on combinations of glucagon with other peptides. New strategies using these unimolecular polyagonists targeting the glucagon receptor (GCGR), have become successful approaches to evaluate the multifaceted nature of glucagon signaling in energy balance and metabolic syndrome. ; This work is supported by grants from Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (RN: BFU2015-70664R), Xunta de Galicia (RN: 2015-CP080 and 2016-PG057), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (CIBER) de Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERobn), and European Community Seventh Framework Programme (RN: ERC-2011-StG-OBESITY53-281408). CIBERobn is an initiative of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) of Spain which is supported by FEDER funds. M.Q. is a recipient of a Postdoctoral contract from Galician Government (Xunta de Galicia ED481B2018/004). Western Norway Regional Health Authority (Helse Vest RHF) ; SI
