This Protein May Target the Leading Cause of Obesity, Mouse Study Shows

The peptide used in this study plays a role in the adiponectin-Nugget involved in controlling the occurrence and severity of chronic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.

Obesity can have a number of effects throughout the body, including altering metabolism in adipose (fat) tissue, damaging the pancreas, reducing insulin sensitivity, and possibly leading to high glucose levels that occur with type 2 diabetes.

But it also causes low level inflammatory responsewith movement of white blood cells in the fatty tissue surrounding organs such as the liver and intestine (visceral fatty tissue), and in the space in the abdomen that contains the intestines, stomach, and liver (peritoneal cavity ).

In the new study, published March 9 in the journal Clinical and experimental immunologythe researchers fed mice a high-fat diet, with some mice also given PEPITEM.

Compared to mice that did not receive the peptide, those that received it had a reduction in the enlargement of insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. They also found a decrease in the number of white blood cells in visceral fatty tissue and the peritoneal cavity.

“These results show us that PEPITEM can both prevent and reverse the impact of obesity on metabolism,” study author Asif IqbalPhD, an associate professor at the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, said in the statement.

“The next step is to translate these exciting findings into therapies that can be used in humans,” he said.

dr. Christoph Buttnerendocrinologist and professor of medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey, told Healthline that scientists have known for many years that obesity and diabetes are associated with increased inflammation.

However, “while in mice several drugs that specifically reduce inflammation have been shown to also reduce obesity and diabetes, in humans – where obesity is also often associated with inflammation – data is much less clear,” he said.

The results of the current study suggest that PEPITEM may have a positive impact on some of the downstream effects of obesity – in particular, by reducing the enlargement of insulin-producing beta cells and reducing white blood cells in certain tissues. .

But the mice that received PEPITEM still gained weight on a high-fat diet. There was also “no effect on fasting glucose tolerance or insulin resistance,” the researchers wrote – both of which are impacted in people with type 2 diabetes.

“To me, that suggests it’s an anti-inflammatory treatment that’s unlikely to have a significant effect on obesity or high blood sugar,” Buettner said.

Although more research is needed to find out if PEPITEM will have a role in treating obesity-related conditions such as type 2 diabetes, some drugs have already been approved to treat obesity.

This includes semaglutide (brand names Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus), which is a type of medicine known as GLP-1 agonist.

In clinical trials, people who took semaglutide lost weight – in one trialup to 14.9% of their starting weight – as well as reduced inflammation.

However, “this does not prove that [these drugs] work by reducing inflammation,” Buettner said, “because they are not drugs that are considered primarily anti-inflammatory.

Instead, “they work in the brain to reduce appetite and balance the autonomic nervous system,” he said.

In addition, these drugs have side effects such as nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, among others.

As a result, Buettner wonders if people will be able to tolerate these drugs long-term, which may be needed to help people maintain a healthy weight throughout their lives.

Additional drugs to treat obesity are still needed, he said, including those that work by different mechanisms than GLP-1 agonists and don’t have the side effects of those drugs.

“Right now, side effect tolerance is still high,” Buettner said, “but in the long term, patients may be frustrated with the [reduced pleasure of eating food].”