When you want to lose weight you normally have two options, heavy exercise, which nobody wants to do, or wight loss drugs, which suppress your appetite so you won’t eat as much. Of course, there are other more drastic alternatives like the lap band, or getting liposuction done, but if you don’t want to try to lose weight, a new drug that targets fat cells specifically has been showing some promising results in primates.
The drug in question is called Adipotide, the way that it works is by targeting the blood vessels that supply oxygen to the fat cells. Adipotide seeks out the vessels, binds to the vessels, and shuts off the red cell supply to the cells effectively killing the cells.
The scientist have found that after the cells lose red blood cell supply, the fat cells are reabsorbed into the body and they get metabolized. The drug is being tested on Rhesus monkeys, over a period of four weeks of daily injections, the monkeys lost an average of 11% of their body weight and they lost over 27% of their abdominal fat. Their BMI decreased and their waistlines dropped dramatically.
The best part is that so far, the monkeys have not showed any signs of nausea, food avoidance, and they remained sharp to their surroundings. The only side effects were to the kidneys, but the researchers said that the effects were controlled very easily and are 100% reversible. The drug was initially tested in mice, and after a couple of modifications it was able to make the jump to the Primate species, now they are trying to get the drug to make yet another jump from Primate to Human. If this works out, you’ll be able to watch your fat wash away in a matter of weeks without having to go under the blade.
University of Texas, via NBF
