The race is on to find a magic fat pill.
Pharmaceutical companies are tripping over each other in their haste to develop new anti-obesity drugs. It’s a ripe market: an estimated 97 million adults in the United States are obese.
Since 1991, adult obesity, defined as being about 30 pounds overweight, has risen an astounding 60 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Every year, about $30 billion is spent on weight-loss remedies in the United States alone. The U.S. market for prescription anti-obesity drugs rang up $296 million in 2000, according to health-care consulting firm IMS Health.
“It’s an enticing market,” acknowledged Louis Aronne, director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
“But the bottom line is, we need more medications out there. It’s ridiculous to think you can make any inroads with obesity with the few drugs currently on the market.”
Here’s a look at the most promising new research:
* The Flu-Like Fat-Fighting Drug
Ever notice that when you have the flu or a bad cold you’re not hungry?
That’s how researchers came up with the idea for Axokine, an appetite suppressant that mimics the effects of cytokines, hormones released by your body whenever you’re ill or injured.
Clinical trials show that people on Axokine lost nearly 10 pounds over 12 weeks of treatment – and kept it off for at least six weeks after discontinuing the drug.
“At high doses, side effects include flu-like symptoms like nausea and coughing, but those reactions are rarely seen in patients treated with lower doses of Axokine,” noted Steven Heymsfield, deputy director of the Obesity Research Center at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital.
Axokine, manufactured by Regeneron, could be available in two to three years.
* Flipping the Appetite Switch “Off”
While searching for a cure for cancer, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical Institute may have unwittingly stumbled upon the solution to obesity.
The team discovered that when a synthetic compound called C75 was injected into mice, they lost much of their appetite and up to 30 percent of their body weight.
“C75 inhibits an enzyme called fatty acid synthase, which tricks the brain into thinking it’s not hungry,” Aronne said.
Another plus: the C75 mice lost more weight than fasting mice because their metabolism didn’t slow down.
The researchers most likely will join forces with Baltimore technology company Fasgen Inc. to conduct human trials.
* Pigging out without turning porky
Eat all you want and lose weight!
Does that sound impossible? It worked with lab mice.
Researchers at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine found that if an enzyme called ACC2 is blocked in mice, the animals can eat much more food than other mice and still weigh 10 to 15 percent less.
“If it works in humans like it did in mice, I’d want it for myself,” raved lead researcher Salih Wakil. “You could sit on the couch, eat to your heart’s content, and still lose weight.”
Wakil is now testing compounds that could be used in a pill to block ACC2. Human trials aren’t expected for another five years.
* Is Fat Contagious?
Can a virus cause obesity?
Researchers have found that mice and chickens infected with adenovirus-36, a common human virus, put on much more fat than uninfected animals.
“Our studies also show that 20 to 30 percent of overweight humans are infected with adenovirus-36, compared to the general population,” explained Nikhil Dhurander, a professor of medicine at Wayne State University in Detroit.
“We suspect it increases the number of fat cells, which encourages them to store more fat.”
More study is needed. Eventually, obese people could be treated with anti-virals or possibly an anti-obesity vaccine.
* A Last Look at Leptin
Once seen as the key fighter in the anti-obesity battle, leptin was relegated to the sidelines once it proved to cause only moderate weight loss in humans.
But early studies suggest leptin, a form of human protein made in fat cells, is effective when combined with existing diet drugs such as Merida.
“You put people on Merida initially to lose weight, then switch them to leptin once they plateau,” Heymsfield said.