President's Showcase
Jamila Guard she/her
Supervising Professor: Dr. Lisa Eckel
Jamila Guard is a fourth-year student majoring in Behavioral Neuroscience. Continuing her honor’s thesis project in Dr. Eckel’s lab, she is using a rodent model of binge-like eating to investigate a possible therapeutic target for bulimic syndromes. She hopes to expand the literature on effective pharmaceutical treatments for these syndromes through her research. Following her graduation, she plans to obtain a Ph.D. in neuroscience, focusing on addiction and the neural pathways underlying motivated behavior.
Abstract
Semaglutide (SEMA; marketed as Ozempic®) has been shown to decrease palatable food intake, leading to weight loss, in individuals with obesity. Less is known about its ability to decrease binge eating in individuals with bulimic syndromes. The current study tested the hypothesis that SEMA treatment would attenuate overconsumption of high fat diet (HFD) in a pre-clinical rodent model of binge-like eating. To promote binge eating, chow-fed female rats were given intermittent access to HFD once every fourth day while receiving daily injections of SEMA or vehicle (INT groups). Weight-matched control groups received similar SEMA/vehicle injections while fed a chow diet with no access to HFD (CHOW groups) or given free access to both chow and HFD (HFD groups). Following the binge-eating paradigm, SEMA’s ability to decrease hedonic eating was further assessed via a 30-min chocolate Ensure “dessert” test, administered immediately after the consumption of a satiating meal. Food intake and body weight were measured daily, and body composition was assessed via EchoMRI at the end of the study. The results showed that SEMA decreased food intake on binge days in INT rats but had no effect on food intake during the 2-h interval in CHOW or HFD rats. During the dessert test, SEMA decreased Ensure intake in HFD and INT rats but not in CHOW rats. SEMA was also more effective in decreasing fat mass in INT rats, relative to HFD and CHOW rats. In conclusion, SEMA decreases binge-like and hedonic eating in female rats with prior exposure to HFD.
Presentation Materials