Experimental Drug May Be Able to Turn White Fat into Brown Fat

A variant of the pulmonary arterial hypertension drug, Adempas, showed weight loss effects in mice…

How helpful was this article? (Please vote.)

{mainvote}

Obesity is characterized by a positive energy balance and expansion of white adipose tissue (WAT). In contrast, brown adipose tissue (BAT) combusts energy to produce heat.

German researchers demonstrated that a small molecule stimulator (BAY 41-8543) of soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC), which produces the second messenger cyclic GMP (cGMP), protected against diet-induced weight gain, induced weight loss in established obesity, and also improved the diabetic phenotype.

In the abstract, they wrote, “Mechanistically, the heme-dependent sGC stimulator BAY 41–8543 enhances lipid uptake into BAT and increases whole-body energy expenditure, whereas ablation of the heme-containing β1-subunit of sGC severely impairs BAT function. Notably, the sGC stimulator enhances differentiation of human brown adipocytes as well as induces ‘browning’ of primary white adipocytes.”

They concluded that, “Taken together, our data suggest that sGC is a potential pharmacological target for the treatment of obesity and its comorbidities.”

Linda S. Hoffmann. Stimulation of soluble guanylyl cyclase protects against obesity by recruiting brown adipose tissue. Nature Communications 6, Article number: 7235 doi:10.1038/ncomms8235 Published 26 May 2015.