A potential new weight-loss drug created by scientists may help people shed pounds and keep them off, researchers say.
In the study, obese mice treated with the drug ate less, lost weight and experienced improved metabolic health, such as reduced insulin resistance, compared with obese mice not given the drug.
The drug appears to work by increasing the body's sensitivity to leptin, a hormone that suppresses appetite. It's thought that obese people become desensitized to leptin, meaning their bodies do not respond to it.
"By sensitizing the body to naturally occurring leptin, the new drug could not onlypromote weight loss, but also help maintain it," said study researcher George Kunos, of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Because the study was conducted in mice, it's not clear whether the effects will translate to people. The researchers plan to start tests of the drug in people if it passes a safety test required by the National Institutes of Health, Kunos said.
New drug, tried method
Because obese people become desensitized to leptin, simply giving people supplements of the hormone does not promote weight loss, studies have shown. The desensitization process is thought to involve cannabinoid receptors the same receptors that are activated bychemicals in marijuana.
Activating cannabinoid receptors is known to promote feelings of hunger in marijuana smokers, and blocking these receptors has been shown to cause weight loss. However, a previously developedweight- loss drug, called rimonabant, that blocked cannabinoid receptors also caused serious psychiatric side effects, including anxiety and depression. Rimonabant was sold in Europe beginning in 2006, but was taken off the market a few years later.
The drug tested in the new study, called JD5037, was designed to not enter the brain as a way to reduce psychiatric side effects. The drug blocks cannabinoid receptors in other parts of the body, including the liver and muscle, Kunos said.
Obese mice given JD5037 daily for about a month lost 28 percent of their body weight, and reached the weight of a normal-size mouse, Kunos said. Moreover, the mice lost the weight while continuing to eat the high-fat diet that led to their obesity in the first place. The mice appeared to lose most of the weight in the first two weeks, and maintained it after that.
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Study shows new weight-loss drug may help keep pounds at bay
