Saturday, May 14, 2022
No Result
View All Result
Medical Finance
  • Home
  • News
  • Interviews
  • Mediknowledge
  • Insights From Industry
  • Thought Leaders
  • Coronavirus
  • Whitepapers
  • Home
  • News
  • Interviews
  • Mediknowledge
  • Insights From Industry
  • Thought Leaders
  • Coronavirus
  • Whitepapers
No Result
View All Result
Medical Finance
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Study provides a promising new avenue for development of anti-obesity treatments

by Medical Finance
in News
Investigational cancer drug mimics the metabolic and therapeutic effects of fasting, mice study shows
9
SHARES
104
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

An anti-tumor drug promotes weight loss in mice at low doses by activating a natural hunger-suppressing pathway, according to a new study publishing February 24th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Jiang Wei Wu and colleagues at Northwest A&F University in Shaanxi, China. The results provide a promising new avenue for development of anti-obesity treatments.

Growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) is a hormone that circulates in response to a wide variety of stimuli, including stress. Previous work has shown that elevation of GDF15 leads to a drop in body weight, while suppression of it leads to obesity.

To search for drugs that could increase GDF15 production, the authors turned to the “Connectivity Map,” a database of gene expression profiles of human cells in response to drug exposure. They found that cells exposed to a drug called camptothecin increased their expression of GDF15. Camptothecin is derived from the Asian tree Camptotheca acuminata, and is a known inhibitor of a DNA repair enzyme (hence its use as an anti-tumor drug).

In obese mice, the authors showed that oral administration of camptothecin rapidly elevated the level of GDF15 in the blood, and over the course of 30 days, reduced food intake by about 12% and body weight by about 11%. In contrast, in lean mice, camptothecin did not elevate GDF15 and there was no effect on either food intake or body weight.

Camptothecin’s effect was specific to GDF15, and GDF15 exerted its effect through its receptor, called GFRAL, the team showed, since an antibody against GDF15 prevented the weight loss, as did knocking down GFRAL expression.

Camptothecin has been studied in anti-cancer trials, but was ultimately set aside due to safety concerns. Its safety as an anti-obesity drug has yet to be determined, Wu said, but noted that the dose used in this study, if scaled up to a human, would be about one-thirtieth of the lowest dose used in human anti-cancer trials. Additionally, the anti-obesity mechanism appears to be separate from the anti-cancer mechanism, which involves blocking the function of the DNA-repair enzyme topoisomerase, and to function at a much lower drug concentration.

We believe our results convincingly argue that camptothecin may have therapeutic benefits for obesity and its associated metabolic disorders. Further study is needed to evaluate its efficacy and safety in advanced models to increase the translational impact.”


Jiang Wei Wu, Northwest A&F University in Shaanxi, China

Wu adds, “In this study, by using in silico drug-screening approach, we discovered that Camptothecin (CPT), a previously identified anti-tumor drug by the US National Cancer Institute, is a GDF15 inducer. CPT elevates circulating GDF15 via activation of hepatic ISR pathway, this activates the GDF15 receptor GFRAL in the hindbrain AP, which subsequently suppresses food intake and reduces body weight in obese mice.”

Source:

Journal reference:

Lu, J.F., et al. (2022) Camptothecin effectively treats obesity in mice through GDF15 induction. PLOS Biology. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001517.

Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Medical Finance

Medical Finance

Related Posts

Horizontal gene transfer between viruses and hosts plays a major role in driving evolution

Researchers identify a gene that could prevent Parkinson’s disease

by Medical Finance
May 13, 2022
0

A UNIGE team has identified a gene whose overexpression prevents the development of Parkinson’s disease in the fruit fly and...

PhoreMost and POLARISqb announce a multi-target collaboration to investigate next-generation cancer therapies

Groundbreaking chemical technique could reveal new treatments for cancer and other diseases

by Medical Finance
May 13, 2022
0

Leicester researchers have described application of a pioneering chemical technique which could unlock ground-breaking new treatments for cancer and other...

Scientists discover antibody that inhibits a broad range of sarbecoviruses

Two clever human antibodies can target Ebola and Sudan virus

by Medical Finance
May 13, 2022
0

Researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) are designing better therapies for treating Ebola virus and its deadly relatives....

NYBC discovers novel small-molecule pancoronavirus fusion inhibitors

Study reveals new opportunities for using small molecule drugs to target KRAS mutants

by Medical Finance
May 13, 2022
0

Research published today in Nature Chemical Biology reveals new opportunities for using small molecule drugs to target KRAS, the most...

Hospitalization risk high for IBD patients with incomplete COVID-19 vaccinations

People who consume sugar for extended periods have increased risk of autoimmune disease

by Medical Finance
May 13, 2022
0

People who consume sugar and other carbohydrates in excess over a long period of time have an increased risk of...

First patient-derived stem cell model developed for studying oculocutaneous albinism

Scientists identify the role of phospholipid in maintaining epithelial cellular adhesion

by Medical Finance
May 13, 2022
0

Cells have certain proteins that help them adhere to each other while covering body surfaces and organs. Loss of these...

Next Post
Omicron variant found to be much less sensitive to neutralizing antibodies than Delta

SARS-CoV-2 virus may be shed for much longer periods by some infected patients, study shows

AI-driven solution predicts RNA and DNA binding sites to accelerate rational drug discovery

Structural proteomics approaches can help in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Login
Notify of
guest
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Support

  • Contact
  • Disclaimer
  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms And Conditions

Categories

  • Coronavirus
  • Insights From Industry
  • Interviews
  • Mediknowledge
  • News
  • Thought Leaders
  • Whitepapers

More News

  • Study: The trustworthiness and impact of trial preprints for COVID-19 decision-making: A methodological study. Image Credit: fizkes/Shutterstock
    Evaluating the trustworthiness and characteristics of COVID-19-related trial preprints
  • Study: T cell response following anti COVID-19 BNT162b2 vaccination is maintained against the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron B.1.1.529 variant of concern. Image Credit: natatravel/Shutterstock
    Study finds stable T-Cell response against Omicron after mRNA booster vaccination
  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms And Conditions

© 2022 Medical Finance - Latest Financial and Business News

No Result
View All Result
  • Interviews
  • Mediknowledge
  • News
  • Insights From Industry
  • Coronavirus
  • Thought Leaders
  • Whitepapers
wpDiscuz
0
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x
| Reply