Experimental Drug Melts The Fat Off Chunky Monkeys

[salvorhardin]

An experimental drug that zeroes in on the blood vessels that feed fatty tissue helped obese monkeys lose quite a bit of weight in a study done by researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. ...

This drug, called adipotide, seeks out the particular blood vessels that fatty tissue needs for nourishment, then causes cells in those vessels to die.

Deprived of a blood supply, the fatty deposits shrivel up.

Ten monkeys treated in the latest study, whose results were just published in Science Translational Medicine, lost an average of 11 percent of their body weight over a month of treatment. The most weight lost by any of the five monkeys in the placebo group was 1 percent.

On the safety side, the drug was pretty well tolerated but did show some side effects in the kidneys. Those were mild and got better on their own once treatment stopped.
Full post: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/11/10/142216790/monkey-business-experimental-fat-drug-shows-promise

[sakabatou]

1. This looks promising

[salvorhardin]

2. If the human trials pan out I'm betting it'll be a lifetime drug

There's a lot of previous research which shows that the body not only has a set point for weight, but it seems to have a set point for the number of fat cells too and when those cells die, or are removed (in the case of liposuction), the body just replaces them -- although not always in the same place as before (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/weekinreview/01kolata.html).

On the other hand, I'd volunteer for the human trial if I qualified.

[cutlassmama]

3. 11% isn't a whole lot, but it's a start. I wonder if the fat comes back

or if it's gone forever in those areas?

[phylny]

4. 11% in one month is phenomenal

That's 11 pounds lost for a person weighing 100 pounds, 22 pounds for a person weighing 200 pounds.

For me, I could lose the weight I want to in six months.

Sign me up!

[trotsky]

5. Hmm.

This sounds familiar.

[Warpy]

6. Great, just when climate change looks like it's going to increase famine

we finally get a drug that takes all that ugly fat that keeps getting caught in the zipper and zaps it when we need to keep it to get through hard times ahead.

I'll be first in line to test it, of course. I don't want to be fashionably slim, I just want to get comfortable.

[Vinca]

7. Oh, geez . . . I immediately thought "Ben & Jerry's."

No wonder I'm a fat girl.