Summary: An experimental drug causes loss of weight and fat in mice, a new study has found. Known as GC-1, the drug reportedly speeds up metabolism, or burning off, of fat cells.
Known as GC-1, the drug reportedly accelerates metabolism or burning off fat cells. GC-1 increases the metabolic rate essentially converting white fat that stores excess calories and is associated with obesity and metabolic disease into a fat like calorie-burning brown fat.
Until recent years, scientists thought that only animals and infants have energy-burning good brown fat. Researchers have found that human adults do have brown fat however they lose their calorie burning activity over the time.
Adipose tissue or fat becomes an enemy when the body has too much of it. Some researchers show that people who have more brown fat have reduced risk of obesity and diabetes. Researchers are now working on ways to “brown” white fat, or convert it into brown fat.
How does it work?
GC-1 works by activating the thyroid hormone receptors which play a role in regulating metabolism- the body’s conversion of food into energy. Thyroid hormone receptors also aid with adaptive thermogenesis, in which the body converts excess energy into heat energy
Researchers have tested the drug in hundreds of mice with partial research funding from the National institutes of health. Obese mice, both genetically obese and those with diet-induced obesity received GC-1 treatment daily.
Genetically obese mice lost weight and more than 50% of their fat mass in approximately 2 weeks. Treated mice also showed antidiabetic effects such as 6 folds improvement or better in insulin sensitivity (how well the body clears glucose from the bloodstream) Researchers say mice with diet-induced obesity experienced similar improvements.
Drug also induced adaptive thermogenesis in fat cells isolated from mice. Cell growth cultures as well as tissue samples from obese mice showed evidence of white-fat browning.
This research data suggests that GC-1 is a novel fat-browning agent that may have use in the treatment of obesity and metabolic disease. However, the drug has not yet undergone testing for weight loss in humans. GC-1 is being tested in clinical trials for lowering cholesterol, under the name Sobetirome. The doses of Sobetirome used in the cholesterol lowering studies are much lower than what would be needed for weight loss.