Cancer biologists Renata Pasqualini and Wadih Arap, who run a lab together at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, are testing a novel drug to fight obesity. Using the model of drugs that kill tumors by cutting off their blood supply, they found a drug that cuts off the blood supply of fatty tissue. They published a study back in 2004 showing that the drug made obese mice lose weight, and now they
have published impressive results from studies of monkeys. The animals received the drug for 4 weeks and were followed for another 4 weeks.
The treated animals lost between 7% and 15% of their body weight, and their waist circumference dropped by up to 14%.
The drug is called adipotide, and it consists of a peptide that the body delivers to fat cells, attached to a cell-killing molecule.
Very weird science; another expert in the field interviewed by ScienceNow said, "The idea of choking adipose tissue off from its blood supply to make an animal leaner seemed incredibly wrong." But so far it seems to work.
1 comment:
Does anybody know more about the side effects of adipotide? I know it causes kidney damage, but how extreme is it? And who can I contact about the clinical trials? The website http;//adipotide.com says it is not associated with the clinical trials or licensee of adipotide which is weird. Are they lying or just trying to get me to stop emailing them. They say to contact the University of Texas.
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