Will this New Drug End the Obesity Epidemic?
Orlistat. Sibutramine. Rimonabant. Metformin. Exenatide. Pramlintide. These are the six main anti-obesity drugs that are prescribed to patients suffering from morbid obesity. The reason these names are not better known is because of the side of effects that each of these drugs possess. Only in a last ditch effort, are these drugs prescribed, where the benefits outweigh the potential side effects.
Red Pill or Blue Pill?
For example, the use of Sibutramine, a now withdrawn drug, resulted in higher blood pressure, higher incidence of strokes and heart attacks, and even seizures. What is worrying is that it was recently withdrawn in 2010. This speaks volumes on the now-prescribed weight-loss drugs, all of which possess side-effects of their own, but only serve to suppress appetite or increase metabolism.
Adipotide, the potential cure
Fortunately, another drug is now posed to join the fray. Adipotide, an experimental drug, has recently been tested on obese rhesus monkeys by a team of scientists at the University of Texas Anderson Cancer Centre. This new drug acts on white adipose tissue, the unhealthy type of fat that is found under the skin and engulfing the abdomen, and is also a predictor of mortality.
Adipotide destroys the blood supply of the white adipose tissue. With the use of a homing agent, the drug binds to a protein on the white adipose tissue, and uses a synthetic peptide to trigger cell death. The fat cells, having lost their blood supply, are then reabsorbed and metabolized. This is completely different from the six above-mentioned drugs, which indirectly control obesity by suppressing appetite, while Adipotide attacks the problem directly by cell death.
Overweight Primate
The obese monkeys that were administered Adipotide lost on average 11 percent of their body weight, lowering their body mass index (BMI) and abdominal circumference (waistline) as well. The rhesus monkeys that were in shape did not lose any weight, demonstrating that the drug only has an effect on obese subjects. Only one side effect was noted for the kidneys, which was said to be dose-dependent, predictable, and reversible. Furthermore, the monkeys did not experience any nausea or food avoidance. A prior study testing Adipotide on obese mice resulted in 30 percent weight loss.
Fat Rat
Anti-obesity drugs that are developed to work on rodents tend to fail when administered to primates, due to the vast differences in metabolism and control of appetite. With Adipotide’s stellar results, the team of scientists are preparing for a 28 day clinical trial on obese prostate cancer patients, seeking to improve their condition through weight loss and reduction of the associated health risks that come with obesity.
America: From Seam to Splitting Seam
Obesity is a serious condition, especially in the United States, with approximately 75 percent of Americans overweight or obese. It increases the possibility of breast, ovarian, prostate, and colon cancer, and diabetes. Furthermore, it has been cited as a contributing factor for up to 400,000 deaths in the United States per year. One problem lies in the terminology used in the explanation of Adipotide’s method of weight control: Cell death. While it may sound worrisome to the uneducated, the fact that cell death occurs at a rate of 50 to 70 billion cells per day in the average human adult should settle the uneasiness that comes with the word “death”. With the advent of Adipotide, can the obesity epidemic be ended?
References
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111109143009.htm:
http://www.forbes.com/2007/02/07/worlds-fattest-countries-forbeslife-cx_ls_0208worldfat_2.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybbVHTnmI4A&feature=related
Karam, Jose A. (2009). Apoptosis in Carcinogenesis and Chemotherapy. Netherlands: Springer. ISBN 978-1-4020-9597-9.
Media:
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November 16th, 2011 at 4:22 pm
This drug looks like it could potentially be pretty helpful in combating obesity. I would be wary to encourage this though because it isn’t solving the reasons why people are so obese. I think we should be focusing on taking away habits that lead to obesity. Also, I would worry that people who were not obese and just wanted to lose weight could get their hands on this drug and remove fat from there bodies which nature intended us to have. Thanks for the post!