Adipotide May Help With Rapid Weight Loss
The Journal of Translational Medicine recently published a study that found that drugs used in cancer treatments may be a cure for obesity. Most cancer fighting medications fight the disease by using synthetic peptides to reduce blood supplies in patients. According to this new study, this solution may starve fat cells, which can eventually kill them off. This theory could lead to the introduction of a new drug, which researchers have named Adipotide.
How does Adipotide work?
Researchers have conducted experimental trials on monkeys to determine the role they may play in weight loss. After a number of obesity medications failed to make it to the marketplace, the study found that existing cancer drugs may actually be the solution many health professionals are looking for. While newer drugs are being considered and medications such as qnexa may be reintroduced by the FDA, these cancer treatment medications may be the solution many people are hoping for.
Dr. Wadih Arap, an oncologist at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and one of the researchers who worked on the project. According to Arap, the weight loss experienced by the monkeys in the clinical study was promising. However, Arap and his colleagues are still unable to explain all of the findings in the study. A number of the species used as test subjects didn’t respond as expected.
Arap said that much more research will need to be conducted before they can determine the appropriate structure of the drug. However, he hope that he and his colleagues will eventually be able to implement a new structure for the drug that will help patients fight obesity.
Safety risks associated with Adipotide?
At the moment, safety is the biggest concern. A few health complications were witnessed in a number of the test subjects, including dehydration, kidney lesions and an unexplained drop in potassium levels. Arap and other researchers realize that more research will need to be conducted before the drug will be able to satisfy FDA requirements. Yihai Cao, a microbiologist from Sweden is fascinated by the work. However, he cautions that researchers will need to be able to explain the way Adipotide creates weight loss and what side effects it will lead to.
When will Adipotide be available?
The M.D. Anderson Cancer Center has started a joint partnership with Arrowhead Research Corp. Anderson hope to get Adipotide to market after completing the R&D process and bringing the drug to the FDA.
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LeolucaCriscione
May 21, 2012 at 12:22 pm
Dear Kalen,
You were one of those writers, who accepted the company’s idea, that adipotide reduces body weight by reducing the white adipose tissue!
Please read my letter to the editor and review the paper!
In their comments to my letter, the authors DON’T respond to my key question on the omission in the paper of the initial values in the figure related to food intake (see my letter to the editor below)!
Best regards
Leoluca Criscione, Former Obesity Researcher
——————————————————————–
•Letter, Obesity
Leoluca Criscione
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Comment on “A Peptidomimetic Targeting White Fat Causes Weight Loss and Improved Insulin Resistance in Obese Monkeysâ€
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A study reporting that a peptidomimetic adipotide reduces weight loss in obese monkeys by
inducing apoptosis of blood vessels surrounding white adipose tissue may instead reflect a direct
effect of adipotide on food consumption.
In a recent paper in Science Translational Medicine, Barnhart et al. (1) report that treatment of
obese monkeys with a ligand-directed peptidomimetic called adipotide induced apoptosis of the
blood vessels of white adipose tissue, resulting in rapid weight loss and improved insulin resistance.
The authors of the study conclude that their findings in primates establish adipotide as a prototype
for a new class of candidate drugs that may be useful for treating obesity in humans. The data
presented in their paper (Fig. 5C and Fig. S3), however, could instead reflect a reduction in food
intake induced directly by adipotide that resulted in body weight reduction. The authors do not
appear to have quantified the effects of adipotide on food intake in obese monkeys. By omitting the initial values for food intake in Fig. 5C and Fig. S3, readers are not able to quantify this effect.
However, extrapolating the number of biscuits eaten (~120 per week) by untreated obese
monkeys (the control group) in the dose -finding studies (Fig. S3B) permits quantification of the
reduction in food intake induced by adipotide, which is calculated to be >50%. The inhibitory effect
of adipotide on food intake lasted at least one1 week longer than the treatment period (Fig. 5C).
This strong reduction in food intake in the absence of an increase in energy expenditure is more
than sufficient to explain the reduction in white adipose tissue and body weight reported in this
study. The fact that the reduction in food intake lasted at least one1 week after cessation of
adipotide treatment suggests that there may be a toxic effect of adipotide.
Â
Sci Transl Med 25 April 2012:
Vol. 4, Issue 131, p. 131le2
Sci. Transl. Med. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3003760
Ethnobotanicos
December 27, 2011 at 12:11 pm
Do you know if the kidney damage was caused by excessive dosing or normal dosing of adipotide;. This compound seems like it has so many potentials, fighting cancer, obesity, etc. It does really seem like the drug from the movie Limitless and with dangerous side effects as well.
autionman
November 15, 2011 at 9:48 am
GREAT SITE i was looking for blog about weightloss with drugs