2023-09-07 05:00:00
Written by Fatima Khalil Thursday, September 07, 2023 08:00 AM
Scientists were able to create a new drug that prevents obesity and lowers cholesterol in mice while they follow a diet rich in fats.
The researchers administered the drug directly to the liver, which reduces the risk of side effects.
This new understanding of the mechanism, the research team said, means that encapsulating drugs in a nano-gel might be an effective way to treat similar diseases such as fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol in the future.
Professor S. said: Tai Theumanavan, a biomedical and chemical engineer from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the US: “One hundred million Americans suffer from obesity and related cardiovascular disorders.”
The nanogel delivers a synthetic thyroid hormone drug called a thyroid hormone. Thyroid hormones help keep the metabolism in balance in the liver, but taking thyroid hormones systemically reduces their effectiveness and comes with side effects.
“We realized that we need to deliver this drug selectively to the liver, because if it travels to other places, it can cause complications,” Thiumannavan explained.
Thiumannavan and colleagues used mouse models to ensure that they might specifically direct carefully developed nanogel carriers with negatively charged surfaces into cells in the liver.
“We’ve come up with a very simple approach, using our unique invention – nano-gels that we can selectively target at different targets,” Thiumannavan explained. “They are specifically designed to deliver hepatocytes to the liver.”
The drug was administered to control mice daily for five weeks via abdominal injection. Obese mice were fed a diet high in fat, sugar and cholesterol for 24 weeks prior to treatment.
“The treated mice completely lost their gained weight, and we didn’t see any unwanted side effects,” Thiumannavan said.
The mice maintained their diet throughout the treatment period, but not only did their weight return to normal, their cholesterol levels decreased, as did harmful levels of hepatitis.
“We found that we activate the reverse cholesterol transport pathway, which lowers cholesterol,” the researchers explained. “We believe that activation of fat oxidation and increased metabolic rate cause weight loss.”
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