New diet pill tricks the body

US researchers are developing new diet pill

07/01/2015

To date, consistent dietary changes and sufficient physical activity are the only provably promising remedy for overweight and obesity (obesity). Although various diet pills based on the protein Farensoid X receptor (FXR) have been developed in the past, which should achieve improved fat burning. But threatened here significant side effects, because the substance also passed into the bloodstream.

US researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla have written in the journal „Nature Medicine“ presented a new diet pill, which - unlike most previous diet pills - does not pass into the blood, but remains in the intestine, so no corresponding side effects are to be feared. The scientists have loud a message from the Salk Institute „developed a completely new kind of pill“, which trickes the body and gives it a calorie intake, which activates fat burning. The active substance „Fexaramin“ In experiments with mice led to a loss of weight, reduced cholesterol and blood sugar levels, a minimization of inflammatory signs and an increased conversion of white into brown body fat.

Overweight brings with it significant health risks
Overweight and obesity are a growing problem in modern industrial nations worldwide. The classification is usually based on the so-called Body Mass Index (BMI). People overweight with a BMI between 25 and 30 are considered overweight. People with a BMI above 30 are obese. In the US, according to the Salk Institute, more than one third of adults are overweight or obese. For those affected, this is associated with an increased risk of diseases such as arteriosclerosis, diabetes or hypertension. Stroke risk is also increased by overweight. Since sustainable weight loss can usually only be achieved with significant changes in lifestyle, many sufferers can not get their excess kilos down. A simple diet pill appears here as a sexy alternative.

Diet pill acts like an imaginary meal
So far, the available diet pills have only had a very limited effect or they involve a considerable risk of side effects. The US scientists have now taken a new approach to their drug that exploits the effect of the protein FXR while avoiding a transfer of the drug into the bloodstream. „This pill is like an imaginary meal“, explains the senior author of the current study, Ronald Evans. After ingestion, the same signals would be transmitted in the body as they would normally be emitted upon ingestion of foods in order to make the energy stores available. But the diet pill „Contains no calories and does not change the appetite“, so the message Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Activation of fat burning
The basis of the new diet pill is the Farensoid X receptor (FXR), which has a significant influence on the release of bile acids from the liver, the digestion of food and the storage of fat and sugar. At the beginning of a meal, FXR is activated and the body is prepared for the calorie intake or its storage. This also leads to an activation of fat burning, explain the US researchers. Evans and colleagues used the scaffold that most drug companies use to produce FXR activators in their preparations, a variant that does not pass into the bloodstream, thus avoiding known side effects. „It turned out that this only works in the intestine when taken orally“, Co-author Michael Downes reports.

Clinical study in preparation
In the review of the effect of the new dietary product on mice, this has been quite convincing, according to the researchers. Obese mice that received a Fexaramine pill daily for five weeks lost weight and fat and had lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels than untreated mice, according to the Salk Institute. In addition, the mice showed an increase in body temperature, which suggests, according to the researchers on a stronger activity of the metabolism. After the convincing results, the US scientists are now working on the preparation of a clinical trial to test the efficacy of fexaramine against overweight and metabolic diseases in humans. (Fp)