microRNA-33 controls feeding behavior by activating hypothalamic AgRP neurons. microRNA-33 controls feeding behavior by activating hypothalamic AgRP neurons

miRNA-33a/b provides a critical link between the regulation of cholesterol and fatty acid biosynthesis by SREBPs, and cholesterol efflux, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) biogenesis and fatty acid oxidation pathways. Notably, pharmacological inhibition of miR-33 elevates hepatic ABCA1 expression, thereby increasing circulating HDL-C and attenuating the progression of atherosclerosis, highlighting the therapeutic potential of miR-33 inhibitors for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. However, work with genetic models of miR-33 deficiency has clearly demonstrated that global loss of miR-33 promotes the development of obesity and metabolic dysfunction. We sought to determine if miR-33 is directly involved in regulating the activity of the AgRP and POMC neurons that promote signals of hunger and satiety, respectively. We have generated AgRP conditional KO mouse to analyze the effect of removing miR-33 in these neurons. After miR-33 removal, mice were fed a HFD and then the expression of different markers related to activiation or inhibition of AgRP neurons was analyzed by scRNAseq. Overall design: Hypothalamus from WT and miR-33 AgRP-CRE mice were dissected after 1 month of 60% HFD. Single cell suspension was prepared and cells were submitted for sc-RNAseq