A new type of nanogel designed in a laboratory at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has been tested on mice in relation to combating obesity and cholesterol. [1] The researchers, who announced their findings in a new study that appeared on Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, [2] explain that the mice treated with this drug, in addition to experiencing no side effects, completely lost the weight they had gained.
Obesity as a global pandemic
Explaining these important results is S. Thai Thayumanavan, professor of biomedical and chemical engineering at the American University and senior author of the study conducted together with Ruiling Wu, who is conducting his PhD within the former’s laboratory. According to the scientist, considering that there are hundreds of millions of people in the world who suffer from obesity and various related cardiometabolic disorders, these are results worthy of note.
The researchers used a thyromimetic drug in the experiment, which is a drug that imitates synthetic thyroid hormone. [1]
The experiment with mice
The mice were divided into two groups: a control group, fed a healthy diet, and a group with mice fed a diet high in fat, cholesterol and sugar. The experiment lasted 10 weeks. According to Thayumanavan, the approach used was quite simple. Using a particular nanonozzle, which he and his colleagues developed, it was possible to selectively direct the drug into the liver to different targets as had never been done before. An approach that the scientists themselves have called “IntelliGels”.
To the mice in the second group, the obese ones, the drug was administered daily inside this special nanojelle via intraperitoneal injection. [1]
The results
Once the drug reached the hepatocyte cells (the main cells of the liver), it activated the beta receptor of the thyroid hormone, triggering systemic hypolipidemics as well as an increase in the synthesis of bile acids and fat oxidation. Just five weeks into treatment, the obese mice returned to their normal weight despite continuing the high-fat diet. Furthermore, cholesterol levels and general inflammation of the liver decreased. [1]
Is this method also useful for human beings?
“We found that we are activating the reverse cholesterol transport pathway, which lowers cholesterol. We believe that the activation of fat oxidation and an increase in metabolic rate are causing weight loss, but more work needs to be done to prove this,” explains Thayumanavan. [1]
Once this mechanism is better understood, these gels made of nanoparticles could open new avenues for combating obesity, cholesterol and other liver diseases in humans too.
Insights
Liver-targeting Drug Reverses Obesity, Lowers Cholesterol in Mice: UMass AmherstConferring liver selectivity to a thyromimetic using a novel nanoparticle increases therapeutic efficacy in a diet-induced obesity animal model| PNAS Nexus| Oxford Academic (DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad252)
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