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Speed-dieting: dopamine agonists promote weight loss

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Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter with essential roles in movement control and salience, and implications in addiction as well as weight loss, decreased food intake and a reduced motivational drive to eat. Folgueira et al. now demonstrate that dopamine causes weight loss and increases brown adipose tissue temperature via activation of the dopamine receptor D2R in hypothalamic GABA-expressing neurons in mice, and treatment with the dopamine agonist cabergoline causes weight loss in humans.

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Fig. 1: Schematic of the potential circuitry through which LHA/ZI D2R agonism might increase BAT temperature in an Orexin A/Orexin 1 receptor–dependent manner.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Metabolism, Diabetes & Obesity Program, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, and Department of Physiology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

    Stephanie E. Simonds & Michael A. Cowley

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  1. Stephanie E. Simonds
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  2. Michael A. Cowley
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Correspondence to Michael A. Cowley.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Simonds, S.E., Cowley, M.A. Speed-dieting: dopamine agonists promote weight loss. Nat Metab 1, 851–852 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-019-0114-z

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