Editorial: The role of GPCRs in obesity

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The role of GPCRs in obesity G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the largest superfamily of membrane receptor proteins comprised of four subfamilies, including classes A (rhodopsin), B (secretin and adhesion), C (glutamate), and F (Frizzled) subfamilies (1).The shared common feature of GPCRs is the seven transmembrane segment's structure, with the amino terminus as the extracellular part and the carboxyl terminus as the intracellular part.GPCRs are responsible for recognizing and interacting with a variety of extracellular signaling mediators such as metabolites, cytokines, ions, neurotransmitters, as well as hormones (2).The extracellular terminus of GPCRs recognizes and interacts with small molecules, ligands, and proteins, resulting in the conformational change of GPCR, which leads to the activation of the intracellular signaling pathway.Therefore, they play a pivotal role in the regulation and mediation of a variety of cellular and molecular mechanisms and signaling pathways that are closely associated with human health and diseases such as cancer, autoimmune and neurogenerative diseases, diabetes, and other metabolic diseases (3-7).GPCRs serve as ideal therapeutic targets for many diseases.To date, the GPCRstargeted therapeutic medicine accounts for about 35% of the approved drugs by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (8).Obesity is a complicated chronic health condition defined as BMI ≥ 30 Kg/m 2 .It develops after long-term positive calorie balance causing excessive expansion of adipose tissues and ectopic fat accumulation.Obesity impacts the health of both adults and children and increases the risk of other diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and cancer (9).GPCRs, directly or indirectly, regulate most metabolic processes including glucose and energy homeostasis, both of which are critical in obesity development and progression.Therefore, investigation of the significant role of GPCRs in obesity attracts extensive attention for dissecting disease pathogenesis, identifying therapeutic targets, and improving the treatment efficacy (1, 10).This Research Topic focuses on the most recent discovery made in the field of GPCRs and obesity, such as advances in genetic variation findings, genetic variant association, functional studies of GPCR variants involved in obesity development and progression, signaling pathways and mechanisms of GPCRs involved in the development of obesity, Frontiers in Endocrinology frontiersin.org