Daniel Marks Laboratory

Cachexia, or disease-associated wasting, is a common occurrence in cancer, renal failure, heart failure and other chronic diseases. This devastating state of malnutrition is brought about by a synergistic combination of a dramatic decrease in appetite and an increase in metabolism of fat and lean body mass. The severity of cachexia in many illnesses is the primary determining factor in both quality of life, and in eventual mortality. There is currently no effective pharmaceutical treatment, and this disorder of energy homeostasis is poorly understood. Research in Dr. Marks' lab has led to the hypothesis that an increase in melanocortin signaling in the hypothalamus may be responsible for many of the features of illness-induced cachexia and failure to thrive. The lab has demonstrated that the growth failure and loss of lean body mass that would otherwise accompany acute and chronic disease could be reversed by pharmacological blockade of melanocortin signaling, and by genetic deletion of the type 4 melanocortin receptor (MC4-R).