A group of US researchers from Yale and University of California, together with their Italian colleagues from the Politechnic University of Marche at Ancona, have discovered that, by limiting the production of an endocannabinoid called 2-AG you can control weight gain and contrast the metabolic syndrome.

This endocannabinoid is produced in the brain of all mammals and it is believed to control the activity of the neural circuits of the proencefalus involved in the management of energy consumption.

It was known that endocannabinoids had an important role in regulating the energetic metabolism, but this is the first time that we were able to see the levels at which this occurs.

Daniele Piomelli, professor of pharmacology at the University of California at Irvine has engineered the neurons of the frontal lobe of laboratory mice to limit the production of 2-AG endocannabinoids. 

Notably, it was discovered thaty the mutant mice remained thin because their brown adipose,  that in all mammals has the function of keeping the organism warm, became hyperactive and was converted into heat at a level that was much higher than normal.

The control of 2-AG levels could therefore become the therapeuric objective to fight weight gain and obesity in man.

http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/abstract/S1550-4131%2812%2900052-6