Similarly, obesity, promoting the activation of Akt and mTOR signalling pathways and down-regulating autophagy genes, such as Ulk1/Atg1 and Atg5, Atg6/Beclin1, inhibits autophagy, a cell defence mechanism which involves degradation and recycling of damaged cellular components and that controls inflammation [19]. Here, BECN1 is linked to obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency.