BDNF and obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency: Recently, we replicated the genetic associations of established East Asian adult body mass index (BMI) loci [16–18] with childhood obesity, and found that six previously identified brain-expressed obesity-related loci, namely FTO-rs1558902, MC4R-rs2331841, MAP2K5-rs4776970, GNPDA2-rs16858082, PCSK1-rs261967, and BDNF-rs2030323, exhibited significant association with both obesity risk and increasing leptin concentrations in children [19].