Experimental drug causes huge weight loss in mice
If your answer to whether you are a man or a mouse is the latter, here’s one reason for you to smile. Especially if you are lugging around excess pounds.
A drug tested on mice reduced their body weight significantly and may hold a solution to the obesity epidemic sweeping the world. This drug combines the synthetic versions of two glucose metabolism-linked hormones – glucagon and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). Glucagon, produced in the pancreas, boosts blood glucose levels when they hit a low by converting glycogen stored in the liver to glucose. On the other hand, GLP-1 reduces blood glucose levels.
Researchers from Indiana University injected mice with the combined drug and found that one injection was enough to shrink their body weight by 25 per cent and their fat mass by 42 per cent in just one week. In a month’s time, their weight fell 28 per cent but fat mass was down a whopping 63 per cent.
Reporting the findings in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, the researchers said the drug may be working by suppressing appetite and increasing the body’s usage of calories. Dr Richard DiMarchi, the lead author of the study, said, “Obesity and its associated consequences, including adult-onset diabetes, remain a primary health and economic threat. Our focus is finding therapies to lower body weight and treat diabetes.”He said, “No single agent has proven to be capable of reducing body weight more than 5 to 10 per cent in the obese population. Combination therapies using multiple drugs simultaneously may represent the preferred pharmaceutical approach to treat obesity.”
While expressing excitement at the findings, Dr DiMarchi warned that the drug’s effects are yet to be tested on humans. He said it could take years for the medication to come into the market as a tool for weight loss.
Though obesity is spreading at an alarming rate, existing pills have been found to have limited efficacy and are also associated with severe adverse effects. Moreover, they work only when the patient is taking them and the weight returns as soon as they’re discontinued.
Excess weight is associated with a number of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, knee and joint problems, etc.
of neurotransmitters, serotonin and noradrenaline, that act in hypothalamus part of the brain.
Reductil Sibutramine can lead to suppression of appetite.
People lose weight because of this action that targets appetite and they eat less food.
By » Katie on 2009-07-30 14:13:32