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Molecule Cuts Off Fat's Food Supply
hords writes "New Scientist reports a magic bullet that destroys the blood vessels that feed fat tissue enables mice to lose a third of their body weight. They first screened millions of peptides and identified one that binds to a membrane protein found only in the blood vessels supplying white fat. Then they hooked this up to another peptide that triggers cell suicide or apoptosis. Mice that had grown obese on a high-calorie diet were given daily injections of the combined peptide they lost 30 percent of their body weight in four weeks, whereas control mice given the two peptides separately grew even fatter."
Sure this might reduce fat cells and overall body weight, but does it do anything to control cholesterol levels, blood pressure, etc?
Giving this to patients by itself wouldn't do much to discourage healthy eating. You'd have to combine it with treatment for cholesterol (and other obesity symptoms). Of course, then people could get a dependancy on it, meaning healthy eating and exercise become pointless to them.
Just some food for thought (h0h0h0, its puntastic)
I swear, if I see another Slashdot comment with "It will be interesting to see"...
I see all sorts of potential problems here. But here are two.
1. We don't know what else fat cells do in your body. They may have other roles than fat storage.
2. The health risk associated with obesity is not necessarily causative, just correlated. It has a lot to do with being sedentary. A fat person who takes these pills and becomes thin probably doesn't alter their health status much unless they take the opportunity to be less sedentary as well.
I bet the potential for abuse for cosmetic purposes, a la anabolic steroids, will be huge.
The number of cells broken down would depend entirely on the dosage. If the FDA (Note: I'm not an American) were indeed to approve it, doctors would need to limit a person's intake so as to ensure the liver and associated organs can handle the increased load. Having the treatment span out over the course of 3-6 months might not be as much a problem than taking one hit in a month.
What I'd be more inclined to look at is the political stance on a drug such as this - if (i.e. when) obesity turns into a major political issue, wouldn't the FDA be under pressure to fast-track the approval process?
I swear, if I see another Slashdot comment with "It will be interesting to see"...
You are assuming that humans would be administered a dose that would cause 30% of your fat cells to die. Each molecule can only kill off one fat cell, correct? So it should be possible to figure out how many molecules are needed to kill 1% of your fat cells in a month. That might be hard on your kidneys, but if it were medically necessary (i.e. you were so fat you can't walk, and thus can't excercise -- basically the same people who qualify to have their stomach stapled) to save a life, it might be worthwhile. And, dialysis is around. Couldn't they just hook you up to a dialysis machine while your fat cells die? Perhaps it will become a new form of liposuction that will leave no scars.
I do think this may be one of the first non-mind altering drug to become a controlled substance if it gets approved because of the danger involved. Although I don't doubt there may be a way for it to be helpful, I also don't doubt stupid people will pop a bottle of pills in the hope it will just make them skinnier faster, or buy it off the black market without understanding hte risks. Then again, who am I to judge? Darwinism works because the stupid and the weak die off before they can procreate.
Controlled substances are labeled as such because there is a large danger of abuse. I used to work at a pharmacy, and generally these drugs were narcotics (i.e. morphine), and things that could be sold illegally (apparently there is quite the black market out there for valium), and things which are very easy to get addicted to (i.e. OxyContins). Most of these drugs fit into the category of things people pop for fun. However, I can see people popping this drug in order to lose weight. It's a well known fact weight loss drugs are dangerous, but how many people bought ephedra based pills after phen-phen was outlawed?