Scientist has discovered an antibody that breaks down and suppresses an appetite stimulant that is produced by the human body.

Researchers from the Scripps Research Institute told that the antibody catalyst, GHT-11E11 became the cause to increase the metabolic rate in fasting mice and restricted their eating after 24 hours without food.

A gastric hormone gherlin, which promotes weight gain and fat storage through metabolic actions, is counteracted by the antibody. The substance is released by the body to boost eating during calorie restriction.

The findings have been published in the online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Our findings show that this new catalytic antibody can seek out and degrade gherlin,” said Kim Janda , who was one of the lead authors of the study.

As obesity has a complex nature that’s why any antibody-based treatment is likely to be combined with different weight-loss strategies like nutritional, medicinal, educational, exercise and psychosocial components. However, Janda said that more research was needed to better know the effect of the antibodies over the long-term and other issues.

A recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that almost 1 billion people worldwide are suffering from obesity or overweight and most of them belong to the developed world.