Print 56 comment(s) - last by alcalde.. on Nov 29 at 8:48 PM

Anti-obesity drug Adipotide  (Source: University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center)
The new drug, called Adipotide, attacks white adipose tissue under the skin and around the abdomen

Researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a drug that assaults the blood supply of fat cells and led to weight loss in obese rhesus monkeys.

Renata Pasqualini, Ph.D., co-senior author of the study and professor in MD Anderson's David H. Koch Center for Applied Research for Genitourinary Cancers, along with Wadih Arap, M.D., co-senior author of the study and a professor in the Koch Center, and Kirstin Barnhart, D.V.M., Ph.D., veterinary clinical pathologist at MD Anderson's Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research, have created a new weight-loss drug that could potentially reduce accumulated white fat in humans.

Currently, weight-loss drugs work to suppress the appetite or increase metabolism in order to combat obesity, but harmful side effects come with the use of such drugs.

Now, Pasqualini and Arap have designed a new drug called Adipotide, which attacks white adipose tissue. This tissue is an unhealthy kind of fat that accumulates around the abdomen and under the skin. Adipotide contains a homing agent that attaches to a protein on the surface of blood vessels that support the fat. A synthetic peptide then triggers cell death, and with a lack of blood supply, the fat cells are reabsorbed.

The drug was used in mice models and rhesus monkey models. Adipotide was able to decrease abdominal circumference, body mass index (BMI) and body fat.

According to the study, the obese mice lost about 30 percent of their body weight while on Adipotide. The rhesus monkeys in the study, which were "spontaneously" obese due to overeating and a lack of physical activity, had a 27 percent decrease in abdominal fat levels. The drug reduced the weight of rhesus monkeys by 11 percent in just one month.

The rhesus monkeys, in addition to being obese, had other health problems associated with their obesity such as metabolic syndrome. This can lead to type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. But those treated with Adipotide used about 50 percent less insulin.

The research team used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to gauge abdominal body fat, which discovered the reduction in abdominal fat levels.

According to the study, monkeys were alert and acted normally during treatment. This showed that the usual side effects of weight-loss drugs, such as loss of appetite and nausea, were not present while using Adipotide. However, Barnhart noted side effects in the kidneys, but the effect was "dose-dependent, predictable and reversible."

In a separate study to test for the drug's effects in non-obese monkeys, lean monkeys did not lose weight, which shows that the drug only acts in obese subjects.

The next step will be a clinical trial for obese prostate cancer patients, where these patients will receive daily injections of Adipotide for 28 days. The team has targeted prostate cancer patients because current treatments can lead to weight gain, and weight gain has caused problems with arthritis. This then leads to less activity, and more weight gain.

"The question is, will their prostate cancer become better if we can reduce their body weight and the associated health risks," said Arap.

This study was published in Science.

Source: Science Daily

Comments     Threshold


RE: I find it interesting that...
By webstorm1 on 11/15/2011 12:02:42 PM , Rating: 2
No, there is plenty of evidence to support this. I find it laughable when others try to explain how you can choose who you are attracted to. Really? That's news to the rest of the world. Find me a person who 'decided' they were attacted to another person, they didn't simply just feel attracted to them, and I'll show you a liar. If you choose to be ignorant, you can ignore all the evidence that sexual orientation is at the very least partly genetic. On the very first googled article on webmd I found this: "Previous studies in male twins have suggested that between 40%-60% of the variability in sexual orientation is due to genes." And using the common sense anecdotal principle that I am not attracted to men, I can't suddenly choose to be attracted to them. I didn't choose to be attracted to women;I have simply always been. If you are saying that you can suddenly choose to be attracted to men, as a man, then you are probably gay.

While it's not my intention to say anything mean to another person, if you are obese you shouldn't get special treatment. You DO have to buy 2 seats in the plane, most seating isn't made to accomodate you, because you've chosen to gain weight and never made any attempt to stop. You can get help before you get obese; overweight is a far cry from not fitting into an airplane seat. If you are just a big person, you'd still have to buy 2 seats. It's really hard to feel bad for someone who eats a whole bag of oreos at one sitting. Am I going to call them fat or say mean things to them? No, people deserve to be treated decently. But I don't sympathize or support obesity as a handicap any more than smoking is. Again anecdotally, I've never ever seen a person who was obese not eat 3X or more than they should be eating at one sitting, has anyone ever? Speaking of choice, I choose to not get fat, even though I love cheese sticks, bacon cheeseburgers, bacon, beer, onion rings, little debbie and hostess snacks, and a slew of other crap for you foods. But I don't just eat them en masse even though I am compelled to do so by their oh-so-delicious flavor.

RE: I find it interesting that...
By ekv on 11/15/2011 5:06:12 PM , Rating: 2
there is plenty of evidence to support this.
So you say but cannot provide even one link?

I don't really want to re-hash the Gay-Gene debate here, but ...

A (the?) link from whence came your quote,2933,145754,00.html

I'm sorry, the report you refer to is highly controversial. The guy, Dean Hamer, PhD, who did the original study was shown to be incorrect. He didn't like that, so he tried a different tack. He was shown to be wrong again.

In a critique of studies that claim to prove a "gay gene," homosexual activist and author Edward Stein, Ph.D., said, "Genes in themselves cannot directly specify any behavior or psychological phenomenon. . . . The terms ‘gay gene’ and ‘homosexual gene’ are, therefore, without meaning. . . . No one has . . . presented evidence in support of such a simple and direct link between genes and sexual orientation."

[Edward Stein, The Mismeasure of Desire: The Science, Theory, and Ethics of Sexual Orientation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 221.]

Even here
your case is not supported. 'As for the females, the "pattern of findings suggests that female homosexuality is a trait acquired after conception, most likely after birth, but before menarche . . . Our evidence, though based on a small sample, implicates environmental factors as the major determinant of female homosexuality." '

[Bell, A. P., Weinberg, M. S., Hammersmith, S. K., "Sexual Preference: Its Development in Man and Woman" 1981, Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press]

As has been stated here before by others, female homosexuality is environmentally determined.

"From the data reviewed in this report, it seems reasonable to conclude that male homosexuality, or, at least, some 'types' of male homosexuality, are under some degree of genetic control, although various problems with this data prevent more precise conclusions from being drawn."

In other words, there is no evidence -- ok, there is no (statictically) SIGNIFICANT evidence -- to support the claim of heritability.

Further, if homosexuality is genetically determined, how do you explain the tens of thousands who have left the homosexual lifestyle? check out

It is the Holy Grail for all victims -- including but not limited to me -- to be able to pin your behaviour on genetics. It absolves you of doing anything to control that behaviour. Just as someone has noted here, a drug to help reduce obesity is merely a tool and does nothing about the underlying causes. If you take the drug you could well "think it's a license to eat whatever". And the same holds for any other addictive behaviour you can name. Go ahead, try it out. I'll wait.

You may also want to examine this
"Second Thoughts About a Gene for Alcoholism"

Even if a heritability link is found, does that absolve you of your behaviour? Alcoholism, for example, can be controlled. Obesity too. I'm not saying this as a one-size-fits-all statement or passing judgement. Though let me add, obesity has a lot of negative health side-effects. Let us be slow to remove the social stigma. It is one thing to be prejudicial, granted, but another to condone a lifestyle that will (potentially) reduce quality-of-life and lifespan. To disapprove shows at least some concern for another human, whereas to say nothing is callous and selfish.

RE: I find it interesting that...
By webstorm1 on 11/17/2011 9:52:36 AM , Rating: 2
I can't debate with someone who links from religious websites. There is too big of a disconnect between intellect and religion. Good luck finding someone to hash that out with though!

RE: I find it interesting that...
By ekv on 11/17/2011 2:43:12 PM , Rating: 2
You can't debate because you're too childish. Because you're intimidated by somebody who thinks through their position, by somebody who leads an examined life. Grow a pair ... and, uh, good luck with that.

Because luck is all you've got -- not intellect and certainly not evidence. Lol

RE: I find it interesting that...
By alcalde on 11/29/2011 8:48:47 PM , Rating: 2
Homosexuality is correlated with the ratio of the length of the ring and middle fingers (which is influenced by sex hormones in the womb). It's correlated with the whorl of hair on your head (clockwise or anticlockwise) which is also influenced by estrogen/testosterone in the womb. It's correlated with twins. It's correlated with left-handedness - guess what? Hormone balances have also been linked to handedness. See a pattern here? One is more likely to be homosexual the more biological older siblings one has (rates of hormone production during pregnancy change the more pregnancies the mother has). Lesbians have responded to female pheromones in tests the same way straight men do. There are many, many more studies like this. It, like evolution, a round earth and one older than 6,000 years is accepted by sane, thinking people the world over. It's you who need to provide evidence for a claim as extraordinary as the one you're making. Did you choose your sexuality? Do you think there is a worldwide conspiracy involved when homosexual people tell you they didn't choose theirs? Or do you HAVE to believe that it's chosen behavior, because otherwise your Biblical injunction to make homosexuals' lives miserable by persecuting them and taking away their rights would be... evil, and that might lead you to believe your Bible might not actually be a scientific textbook?

