Real Help for Reducing Obesity Set for Human Testing

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 34 percent of adult Americans, and 17 percent of children and adolescents are obese. It cannot come too soon for a viable agent to be available to help reduce the condition. Researchers at MD Anderson are studying just such an agent.

At MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, a group of researchers are interested in decreasing obesity because as researcher Professor Wadih Arap explained to The Telegraph, "Obesity is a major risk factor for developing cancer, roughly equal to tobacco use, and both are potentially reversible."

Obesity is a two-pronged problem in relation to cancer: Fat cells secrete a type of growth hormone on which cancer cells can thrive, both in the development of cancer and throughout the course of the disease.

Research

So far, research has been successfully conducted in primates, as reported in Science Translational Medicine. Fifteen monkeys who had grown obese by eating too much and exercising too little were test subjects for the new drug agent currently named Adipotide.

Ten monkeys were used as test subjects; five monkeys were the control group. At the end of the study period, the monkeys who received Adipotide lost 38.7 percent of their total body fat, 27 percent of that abdominal fat versus the untreated monkeys who lost 14.8 percent of their total body fat.

This study followed one first done on obese mice who lost 30 percent of their total weight, reports Reuters.

Therapeutic Action of Adipotide

Unlike other weight-loss medications, Adipotide does not seek to suppress appetite or increase the body's metabolism. Instead, within this new medication, is a chemical that homes in on white fat -- the fat that develops on the abdomen and under the skin -- then it works to cut off the blood supply to the fat cells. As the cells die off, they are reabsorbed by the body and eventually sloughed off as waste.

Human Trials

Scientists are heartened by the fact that the drug successfully made the transition between testing on rodents to testing on primates. That is the area where many drugs first thought to be viable fail. Because primates are much closer genetically to humans, it is vital that primate studies show both efficacy and safety.

With the successful primate study behind them, researchers are planning a clinical study with Adipotide on obese prostate cancer patients. The plan is for the men to receive a daily injection of the drug for 28 days, reports The Telegraph. Researchers will be looking both for a decrease in the study participants' body fat and the effect the loss of such body fat has on the prostate cancer.

Bottom Line

Adipotide and the research currently being done at MD Anderson have exciting potential both to treat obesity and to help reduce the development of cancer. But getting the drug to market is yet years away.

In the meantime, the best thing we can all do for our best health is to eat a nutritionally balanced, calorie correct diet and get moderate physical activity for 30 minutes most days of the week. If and when Adipotide becomes available for sale, it will still be important to take personal responsibility and do all that we can to obtain and maintain our weight within normal ranges.