title: Irisin, two years later.
abstract: In January 2012, Boström and colleagues identified a new muscle tissue secreted peptide, which they named irisin, to highlight its role as a messenger that comes from skeletal muscle to other parts of the body. Irisin is a cleaved and secreted fragment of FNDC5 (also known as FRCP2 and PeP), a member of fibronectin type III repeat containing gene family. Major interest in this protein arose because of its great therapeutic potential in diabetes and perhaps also therapy for obesity. Here we review the most important aspects of irisin's action and discuss its involvement in energy and metabolic homeostasis and whether the beneficial effects of exercise in these disease states could be mediated by this protein. In addition the effects of irisin at the central nervous system (CNS) are highlighted. It is concluded that although current and upcoming research on irisin is very promising it is still necessary to deepen in several aspects in order to clarify its full potential as a meaningful drug target in human disease states.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, CIMUS, University of Santiago de Compostela-Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria (IDIS), 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain ; CIBER Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERobn), 15706 Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: Marta G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Novelle
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Contreras
authors.forename: Amparo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Romero-Picó
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: López
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Diéguez