NEW YORK, June 26 (UPI) -- A gene variant that has been linked to alcohol and cocaine addiction may play a major role in obesity, U.S. and European researchers said.
The researchers examined data from eight studies involving genes and body weight for more than 31,000 people ages 45 to 76.
The researchers, who reported their findings PLoS Genetics, found those with a variant of the central-nervous system gene NRXN3 had a 10 percent to 15 percent higher risk of diabetes compared with those who didn't have it.
NRXN3 is the third gene to be linked to obesity and provides the latest evidence that genes affect appetite and the brain plays a major role in obesity, the researchers said in their study.
Researchers have long known obesity is an inherited trait, but have had a hard time linking it to specific genes, said Robert Kaplan, who helped direct the study.
Kaplan, an associate profession of epidemiology and population health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York, said identifying obesity genes could help prevent the condition and lead to treatments.
Because NRXN3 also is implicated in addiction, he said, obesity and addiction may share neurological underpinnings.
