Potential anti-obesity drug developed

SCIENTISTS believe they may have found the right recipe for an obesity drug to help people lose weight and keep it off, without nasty side effects.

The drug, which is yet to be tested in humans, increases sensitivity to the body's appetite-suppressant hormone, leptin.

"By sensitising the body to naturally occurring leptin, the new drug could not only promote weight loss, but also help maintain it," said study author George Kunos of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in the US.

The drug works by reversing desensitisation to leptin, a process scientists think is caused by receptors that mediate hunger sparked by marijuana use and naturally occurring cannabinoids in the body.

Scientists have previously developed anti-obesity drugs to target cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1R), but one, rimonabant, was taken off the market in Europe because of serious side effects including anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts.

Dr Kunos and his team minimised the side effects by developing a drug that targets CB1R without entering the brain.

Obese mice given the drug lost weight after their appetites were suppressed by increasing their sensitivity to leptin.

The mice did not express anxiety or adverse behavioural side effects.

"Obesity is a growing public health problem, and there is a strong need for new types of medications to treat obesity and its serious metabolic complications, including diabetes and fatty liver disease," Dr Kunos said.

"This finding bodes well for the development of a new class of compounds for the treatment of obesity and its metabolic consequences."

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Potential anti-obesity drug developed