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Neuroscience

A cellular basis for the munchies

Nature volume 519, pages 38–40 (2015)Cite this article

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How does marijuana cause the irresistible hunger pangs known as the munchies? Paradoxically, the answer seems to involve an unusual mode of activation of a brain circuit best known for suppressing appetite. See Article p.45

According to data gathered by the United Nations1, 177 million people around the globe use marijuana. So some of you might be familiar with the munchies — that inexplicable drive to eat, stimulated by the active ingredients of marijuana, the cannabinoids. This connection has already led to the development of dronabinol, a synthetic version of the natural cannabinoid Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, as a treatment for the metabolic disorder cachexia anorexia syndrome. But how, and where in the brain, do cannabinoids work to stimulate food intake? In this issue, Koch et al.2 (page 45) report that, when given in doses meant to simulate the effects of marijuana, cannabinoids surprisingly activate a subset of pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons, a cell group in the brain's hypothalamus that has a central role in inhibiting hunger.

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Figure 1: Cannabinoid regulation of feeding circuits.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Sachin Patel and Roger D. Cone are at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37232-0615, USA.,

    Sachin Patel & Roger D. Cone

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  1. Sachin Patel
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  2. Roger D. Cone
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Correspondence to Roger D. Cone.

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Patel, S., Cone, R. A cellular basis for the munchies. Nature 519, 38–40 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14206

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