New obesity drug fights diabetes

A newly developed medication can help not only reduce weight but also effectively reverse diabetes and lower the cholesterol level in mice.

According to a study published in Chemistry and Biology, fatostatin interferes with a range of some 63 genes, many of which are switched on by overeating.

The new drug influences the sterol regulatory element binding proteins (SREBPs), activating the genes involved in making cholesterol and fatty acids.

"Fatostatin blocked increases in body weight, blood glucose, and hepatic (liver) fat accumulation in (genetically) obese mice, even under uncontrolled food intake," the researchers wrote.

The drug was also reported to be effective in fighting prostate cancer, indicating the link between prostate cancer and obesity.

Researchers, therefore, concluded that fatostatin is a 'master controller' switch which can cut off fat-making genes in mice.

They, however, doubt whether the drug would result in similar effects in humans.

Scientists hope their findings will lead to the development of a medication to could simultaneously fight obesity and other obesity-related health problems such as cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Source : www.presstv.ir

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Obesity emerges as new risk factor for severe flu

People who are obese but otherwise healthy may be at special risk of severe complications and death from the new H1N1 swine flu virus, U.S. researchers reported on Friday.

They described the cases of 10 patients at a Michigan hospital who were so ill they had to be put on ventilators. Three died. Nine of the 10 were obese, seven were severely obese, including two of the three who died.

The study, published in advance in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's weekly report on death and disease, also suggests doctors can safely double the usual dose of oseltamivir, Roche AG's antiviral drug sold under the Tamiflu brand name.

"What this suggests is that there can be severe complications associated with this virus infection, especially in severely obese patients," said CDC virus expert Dr. Tim Uyeki.

"And five of these patients had ... evidence of blood clots in the lungs. This has not been previously known to occur in patients with severe influenza virus infections," Uyeki said in a telephone interview.

Dr. Lena Napolitano of the University of Michigan Medical Center and colleagues studied the cases of 10 patients admitted to the university's intensive care unit with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by infection with H1N1.

"Of the 10 patients, nine were obese (body mass index more than 30), including seven who were extremely obese (BMI more than 40)," they wrote in their report.

Their study was not designed to see if obesity or anything else poses a special risk factor for flu. But the researchers were surprised to see that seven of the 10 patients were extremely obese.

Multiple Organ Failure

Nine had multiple organ failure, which can be seen in influenza, but five had blood clots in the lungs, and six had kidney failure.

None has fully recovered, the researchers said.

The H1N1 swine flu virus first emerged in Mexico in March and was spreading out of control in the United States by the time it was identified at the end of April. The World Health Organization declared a pandemic in June.

While it is causing moderate illness, all influenza viruses can be deadly and this one is no exception. It has killed close to 500 people globally, more than 200 in the United States alone.

However, the new virus has a slightly different pattern from seasonal flu -- it spreads in the summer months, attacks young adults and older children, and may affect the body slightly differently.

As with H5N1 avian influenza, which only rarely attacks people, patients seem to survive better if they get extra-high doses of Tamiflu for longer than the usual 10-day treatment course, Uyeki said.

"We don't know if it is necessary for a higher dose of the drug to be given to patients who are obese," he said.

"The high prevalence of obesity in this case series is striking," the CDC's commentary accompany the report reads.

"Whether obesity is an independent risk factor for severe complications of novel influenza A (H1N1) virus infection is unknown. Obesity has not been identified previously as a risk factor for severe complications of seasonal influenza."

Source : www.reuters.com

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What You Should Know About Obesity

Obesity is a problem for adults and children across the U.S. Surveys indicate that 31.1% of the male population was considered obese in 2004, which increased to 33.3% in 2006. For women, 33.2% were obese in 2004, which increased to 35.3% in 2006. Additionally, 16.3% of the children (ages 2 to 19) in the survey needed to lose weight to reach a healthy BMI.

The concern about the obesity epidemic is not merely aesthetic. In fact, links between a number of health conditions and weight have been made. Hypertension, heart disease and type 2 diabetes are just a few conditions overweight people are susceptible to.

According to the Center for Disease Control, obesity and caloric intake are interlinked. "Weight management is all about balance -- balancing the number of calories you consume with the number of calories your body uses or burns off," the site says. For instance, if you eat the same number of calories your body is using each day, then your weight will remain stable.

For the average American, this amount is about 2,000 calories per day. If you eat more calories than your body can use ("in caloric excess"), these calories will store as fat, so if you're going far over 2,000 each day, you need to assess your diet nutrition habits. If you are eating fewer calories than you're using ("in caloric deficit"), your body will begin pulling from its fat cell storage for energy, so your weight will decrease. Most diets suggest between 1,200 - 1,500 calories daily to lose weight.

Genetics may play a role in one's ability or inability to lose weight, but researchers caution that this should not be used as a way of rationalizing the chance of putting on too many pounds, which is taking place in our population. "Despite obesity having strong genetic determinants, the genetic composition of the population does not change rapidly.

Therefore, the large increase in . . . [obesity] must reflect major changes in non-genetic factors," reports James O. Hill and Frederick L. Trowbridge. Genes are linked to excessive weight gain in people with Bardet-Biedl syndrome and Prader-Willi syndrome, but in general, any person is capable of adhering to a diet and weight loss regime.

In addition to the overt health consequences, there are also economic ramifications associated with obesity. In 1999, overweight and obese medical expenses accounted for 9.1% of all U.S. medical expenditures, reaching a total of $78.5 billion.

Half of these expenses were paid by Medicaid and Medicare. Today, the expenses are more than $95 billion, which are not only taking its toll with the cost of treatment and diagnostic services, but also in morbidity and mortality costs, with diminished productivity, absenteeism and lost wages.

A state like Mississippi paid out $757 million to service its overweight population's medical needs. With 19.7% of these people served by Medicare and Medicaid, state taxes will be run ragged.

by : Mike Selvon
Source : www.amazines.com

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New Weight Loss Drug Advances

A new weight loss drug looks good in late-stage clinical trials.

The drug is Contrave, from Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. It's a combination of two existing drugs: The antidepressant Wellbutrin and the addiction drug naltrexone.

Contrave doesn't work in the belly. It works in the hypothalamus, the brain's central thermostat that controls appetite, temperature, and how the body burns energy.

It's already known that people lose weight soon after starting Wellbutrin treatment. But this effect soon wears off, and people regain weight. That's where the naltrexone comes in, says endocrinologist Dennis D. Kim, MD, MBA, Orexigen's senior vice president for medical affairs.

"Naltrexone comes in and lifts the brake on the Wellbutrin effect," Kim tells WebMD. "So you have a synergistic effect to signal the hypothalamus to reduce food intake. Weight decrease is maintained over time."

That sounds good in theory. But does it work?

The drug was tested in a clinical trial that enrolled nearly 700 obese people -- 90% of them women, with an average weight of 223 pounds. All study participants enrolled in an intensive weight loss program that included counseling, diet, and exercise. Two-thirds of the study participants also took Contrave.

Just under 60% of the participants stayed in the program for 56 weeks.

The intensive weight loss program worked well. After 56 weeks, they had an overall weight loss of just over 5% of their body weight -- 11 to 16 pounds. Moreover, 11% of participants who finished the study lost more than 15% of their body weight.

But those who took Contrave did even better. After 56 weeks, they lost 9.3% of their body weight -- 20 to 25 pounds. And more than 29% of them lost more than 15% of their body weight.

Nausea, usually mild or moderate, was a frequent side effect of Contrave treatment. More patients on Contrave also reported mild-to-moderate headaches and constipation. All these side effects tended to occur early in the study.

Despite the side effects, patients on Contrave did not suffer worsening depression or psychiatric symptoms. In fact, they reported better quality of life than other participants.

Clearly, any weight loss drug will work better when combined with a state-of-the-art weight loss program. Additional studies are looking at how well Contrave works when combined with less drastic programs.

"We don't expect an intensive diet and exercise program to be needed in order for Contrave to work well," Kim says.

Contrave isn't the only weight loss drug Orexigen has in the works. The company is also testing another pill, Empatic, that combines Wellbutrin with the seizure drug Zonegran. In early clinical studies, obese patients lost 10% of their body weight in six months. More study results should be available by the end of this year.

Thomas Waden, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Weight and Eating Disorders, presented the Orexigen study findings in a presentation to the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association, held June 6-9 in New Orleans.

Source : www.webmd.com

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Arena Obesity Drug Helps Patients Shed a Few Pounds, Lower Risk of Heart Disease

San Diego-based Arena Pharmaceuticals disappointed a lot of investors a couple months ago when its obesity drug didn’t help people shed as many pounds as hoped. But after combing through the data in greater detail, the company says it has evidence that its drug can help many patients lose weight, and that it leads to all sorts of other health benefits, like potentially lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Arena is presenting detailed results today from a clinical trial of 3,200 patients, known as Bloom, which compared its lorcaserin treatment to a placebo. The data being released today show that patients on the Arena drug for a year generally had lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol scores, improved blood sugar levels, and 30 percent lower levels of C-reactive protein in the blood—a marker for inflammation associated with higher risk of heart attacks.

The findings, which are being presented today at the American Diabetes Association annual meeting in New Orleans, could cause some investors to take another look at the prospects for lorcaserin, which was branded as a failure by many when the first hints of data were made public in March. The major finding of the study is that patients lost an average of 5.8 percent of their body weight on the drug, compared with 2.2 percent body weight loss in the placebo group. The FDA generally considers that a weight loss drug should be five percentage points better than a placebo—so on that score, Arena came up short.

Arena acknowledges that, but it’s trying to draw attention to a second FDA definition that gives the company reason for optimism that it will win approval for lorcaserin. If a drug helps twice as many patients lose 5 percent or 10 percent of their body weight compared to a placebo, that’s another valid definition for success, the FDA has said. On that count, Arena was a winner. About two-thirds of patients who stayed on the trial a full year lost 5 percent of their body weight, compared with one-third who did as well on a placebo. More than one-third of the patients on the drug lost 10 percent of their body weight, which was almost triple the rate among those on a placebo.

“This has an opportunity to be the drug of first choice,” says Arena CEO Jack Lief. “Our ability to tie all of these outcome measures together, with a well-tolerated drug, is something no one else has.”

Any drug that can help people lose significant amounts of weight with no serious side effects has a chance to be a big seller. Obesity rates in the U.S. have been skyrocketing for years, with about two-thirds of U.S. adults now considered overweight or obese, putting them at risk for a litany of other conditions like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and arthritis. The cost to society of all this unhealthy weight gain is hard to measure because it’s intertwined with so many diseases, but a U.S. Surgeon General’s report in 2000 indicates that obesity may be responsible for about 9 percent of national healthcare spending.

Arena has two primary competitors in the race to develop an effective new drug for this epidemic. One is San Diego-based Orexigen Therapeutics , which combines a couple of generic drugs, naltrexone and bupropion, into a long-lasting formulation it hopes to market as Contrave. The other is from Mountain View, CA-based Vivus , developer of Qnexa.

None of those drugs has shown evidence that it can yet “make a dent” in the nation’s obesity problem, says Xavier Pi-Sunyer, the director of obesity research at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York, a professor of medicine at Columbia University, and an investigator on the clinical trials of all three major obesity drugs in late development from Orexigen, Arena, and Vivus.

A hit drug in this disease would need to help people shed between 10 percent and 15 percent more of their body weight than a placebo, particularly because consumers will have to pay for these drugs out of their own pockets instead of getting insurance to pay, Pi-Sunyer says. Drugs like this will probably cost $150 a month, which will force many patients to really ask whether it’s worth the expense.

“I’m not sure any of the three drugs will make a dent in the problem,” Pi-Sunyer says. “When people have to pay for this out of their own pocket, they want something truly effective.”

Arena’s Lief was more optimistic. The dropout rate was similar for patients on the Arena drug and those who got a placebo. Depression rates were similar for patients on drug and placebo, and there was no increased tendency toward suicidal thinking, which was a rare side effect that ultimately prevented Sanofi-Aventis from winning U.S. approval of an obesity drug a couple years ago.

Importantly, Arena passed a rigorous test that looked at whether its drug might damage heart valves. That has been a concern since the start with this drug, because it is designed to curb appetite by hitting a similar receptor on brain cells that was blocked by Wyeth’s fen-phen drug combination in the 1990s. Fen-phen was pulled off the market because it also damaged heart valves. Arena’s drug was designed to have the same appetite-suppressing effect of fen-phen, without damaging heart valves.

Nonetheless, Wall Street reacted negatively, driving Arena stock down by 28 percent, from $4.50 to $3.23 on March 30, the day it announced that it wasn’t able to produce a 5 percentage point advantage over a placebo in average weight loss. Since then, the stock has recovered some, but not fully, climbing back to $3.92 heading into today’s medical meeting.

“Most investors have not gotten it yet,” Lief says. Many investors don’t appreciate how well-tolerated the Arena drug is, with a dropout rate similar to placebo, which is “unheard of” in the field of obesity drugs. There was also a high degree of variability in how individuals responded to the drug. About one-third of patients lost more than 5 percent of their body weight inside of two months. “Losing 5 percent of your body weight in less than two months is truly a big deal,” Lief says. “Most people don’t like to be on a diet for three to six months.”

A big check from a Big Pharma company that wants a partnership stake would go a long way for Arena in its quest to prove the doubters wrong. The company is having active talks, although Lief says he wouldn’t bet on a deal getting done until after results come out in September from another clinical trial, called Blossom. “If I were a partner, I’d want to see that last bit of data before we file (the application) to the FDA,” he says.

Source : www.xconomy.com

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Sleep And Obesity Connection Explored By New Drug From Merck

A group of scientists working in the research laboratories at the pharmaceutical company Merck have recently been conducting studies which confirmed the link yet again. In fact their study made use of a new drug which was designed to have an effect on the natural body functions which are linked to both sleep and body weight. When the scientists gave the lab mice the drug along with a high fat diet they put on less weight than those mice who were not given the drug and who followed the same diet.

The drug was developed to have an affect on T-type calcium channels which previous research has shown to be part of the sleep and weight gain function of the human body. By targeting these T-type calcium channels they were able to prevent weight gain in the lab mice. The scientists spoke about how the drug was aligning feeding patterns with the natural circadian rhythms of the mice.

This drug is still at a very experimental stage but Merck are confident that something could come out of its research which may help people who have weight problems to shed the pounds. Many more years of research will be needed before anything concrete can be presented to the Food and Drug Administration and the European health authorities for regulatory approval. The weight loss drug market is one of the most lucrative in the pharmaceutical industry.

The pharmaceutical company Merck is probably best known for its male pattern baldness remedy Propecia which they first developed as a treatment for prostate problems in men.

Source : www.ukmedix.com

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