Biotechnology takes on the battle of the bulge

If you want to cut those pesky fat cells out, the only option currently is to go under the  knife-cum-vacuum cleaner and have them forcefully sucked out. 

 Maybe in the future, it could be as easy as getting a shot.

Biotechnology takes on the battle of the bulge

Any serious dieter will tell you,  the chemical options to extricate those fat cells, are limited. 

 The focus of most diet pills is to either curtail the number of calories going in, through suppressing appetite, or prevent the absorption of the offending calories which have found their way in.   Most don’t really work or end up doing more damage than good, due to serious adverse effects.

But now researchers from MD Anderson have created a biopharmaceutical which is able to send a destructive chemical package, directly to the fat cells.  

Sending a letter bomb

The team borrowed the idea from the annals of cancer chemotherapy.   Cancer drugs are seriously toxic, they have to be, to kill cancer cells. 

The big problem with these drugs has been the fact that when someone takes the drug, it ends up killing cancer cells, as well as  EVERYTHING else.  To solve the problem, researchers have been working on ways to deliver these poisonous drugs directly to cancer cells. 

So the score card reads :

• Cancer cells- DEAD
• Body cells – OKAY

The MD Anderson team have found a way to deliver a rather toxic package, specifically to fat cells, by exploiting the body’s own address system.  The new family of drugs have been nicknamed vascular zip code drugs.

Fat cells lose their blood supply

It turns out blood vessels are more than just an endless collection of pipes, carrying food around the body.   Just like the road network in a city or town uses sign boards to differentiate individual streets, blood vessels also have sign boards to distinguish their location.  This system helps ensure the body delivers the right package of chemicals to each organ.

The new drug, Adipotide®, specifically visits blood vessels which are tasked with supplying blood to fat cells.  The drug is able to read the body’s sign boards because it carriers a very special tag on it, which matches the fat signboard.  When it arrives, it binds to the sign board, but since it is poisonous to the cells lining blood vessels, it triggers their death. 

The fat cells can no longer get enough food because the blood vessels are gone, so the fat cells also die.   So its bye bye FAT !

Skinny monkeys in an instant

The team have tested Adipotide® on fat  rhesus monkeys.

A dose of the drug saw the monkeys lose 11 percent of their body weight, in just 4 weeks, plus, the monkeys seemed pretty happy during the treatment so drug was not very toxic.

With the cry baby fat cells gone, overall health of the monkeys improved.

Restrain yourself

Don’t get all excited – this is not the answer to your prayers, just yet.

There is a big difference between monkeys and humans.  The drug needs to be tested in humans first, to see if it is safe and establish whether it will also work in humans.

The other catch, the drug worked for about 4 weeks, as with all fat loss programmes – the fat started to reappear.  The body really doesn’t like to lose that blubber layer !

Slow and steady is probably still the way to go

It took years to accumulate your extra fat mass.  The pounds packed on because you ate too many calories and didn’t burn enough of them, bad body chemistry most likely aggrevated the situation.

Permanent weight loss requires you to fix the body chemistry.

Not sure where to start ?  Begin with getting the 7 Big Spoons sorted,  obey the rule of thirds and move a little.    

A Peptidomimetic Targeting White Fat Causes Weight Loss and Improved Insulin Resistance in Obese Monkeys. Science Translational Medicine, 2011; 3 (108): 108ra112 K. F. Barnhart, D. R. Christianson, P. W. Hanley, W. H. P. Driessen, B. J. Bernacky, W. B. Baze, S. Wen, M. Tian, J. Ma, M. G. Kolonin, P. K. Saha, K.-A. Do, J. F. Hulvat, J. G. Gelovani, L. Chan, W. Arap, R. Pasqualini.

 

Interested in learning more about the chemistry behind those extra fat layers ?

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Further reading

How to choose an exercise programme you will stick with	A pinch of pepper produces a pyrogenic sting which melts fat	Are your stem cells choosing to be fat cells rather than bone cells ?

The 7 Big Spoons™…. are master switches that turn health on.

Balance Eicosanoids	Rein in insulin	Dial down stress	Sleep !	Increase Vit D	Culivate microflora	Think champion

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