A new study provides the first evidence that a protein called BAM15 acts as an energy decoupler and could be an effective medication to treat obesity and related diseases.
Overweight affects more than 650 million people worldwide and leads to a number of dangerous health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and more than a dozen fatal cancers. Worldwide obesity and obesity-related illnesses spend well over $ 150 billion a year.
“Even so, only a handful of drugs are currently approved by the FDA for the treatment of obesity, and people who take these drugs rarely achieve long-term weight loss,” said John Kirwan, Ph.D., executive director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
“New, more effective drugs are needed to stop the obesity epidemic. This research is a promising step in the discovery process. We hope that BAM15 or related compounds will advance clinical drug development in the not too distant future and become a viable treatment option for patients with obesity. “
BAM15 prevents weight gain, fat build-up and lowers blood sugar. Photo credit: Graphics by Kathryn Pergola
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BAM15 differs from existing weight loss medications, which mainly work by reducing the amount of food a person eats or the calories their body consumes. BAM15 works by making mitochondria, the cell’s power plants, less efficient. The result is that the mitochondria burn more energy.
Researchers believe that BAM15 can be used to treat a variety of conditions, including diabetes, fatty liver disease, and some forms of cancer.
In the new study, Pennington Biomedical scientists show for the first time that mice given BAM15 are resistant to weight gain by burning more calories than their untreated counterparts. Other advantages of BAM15 are:
- Reduce blood sugar and insulin levels regardless of weight loss.
- Improvement of skeletal muscle sensitivity to the effects of insulin. Insulin resistance of the skeletal muscles is a major risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes.
- Reduction of total fat accumulation by preventing fat accumulation in the liver, kidney and blood. The accumulation of too much fat in the liver, kidneys or blood can damage the organs and lead to heart diseases.
The study “BAM15-mediated mitochondrial decoupling protects against obesity and improves blood sugar control” was published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.
Reference: June 10, 2020, EMBO Molecular Medicine.
DOI: 10.15252 / emmm.202012088
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