Drug Shows Promise At It Great Reduces Weight and Cholesterol Levels in Animals

Obesity is a serious health issue globally, with annual rates continuing to rise in both children and adults. In fact, from 1990 to 2022, the percentage of people between the ages of 5 and 19 living with obesity increased from 2% to 8% worldwide. [1] Therefore, it is no surprise that scientists are constantly looking for new ways to help people lose weight that don’t also cause unwanted side effects. Recently, scientists developed an injectible nanogel that has resulted in significant weight loss in the laboratory mice tested. Let’s discover more about this revolutionary weight loss drug.  

The Revolutionary Weight Loss Drug Nanogel

One of the primary goals of the Center for Bioactive Delivery was to try to figure out how to deliver the right drug to the right organs inside the body. This was accomplished by developing new delivery systems for small and large molecules. S. Thai Thayumanavan, a biomedical engineer from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is the man behind this incredible new nanogel delivery system. Thayumanavan developed a nanogel-based carrier that delivers a drug directly to the obese mice’s livers, which in turn reverses their obesity. The most promising sign of this new delivery system was that the mice lost all their gained weight without experiencing any negative side effects. 

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How These Findings Can Help Humans

This revolutionary weight loss drug is much needed, especially considering that 100 million people in the United States suffer from obesity (and 22 million adults have been diagnosed with severe obesity). [2] While this new nanogel system has proven effective in obese mice, efforts are now underway to translate these findings to humans. These efforts are being led by a company founded at the UMass Institute for Applied Life Sciences known as Cyta Therapeutics. While there is still much developmental work yet to be conducted, the team hopes it will eventually become a drug approved for human consumption. 

How the New Weight Loss Drug Works

Thyromimetics are drugs that mimic synthetic thyroid hormones. They have been regarded as a possible way of tackling health issues such as type 2 diabetes, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, high cholesterol, and obesity. Therefore, it was one such Thyromimetic drug that Thayumanavan and his associates were studying. Targeted therapy is essential, and they realized that they needed a system that would deliver the drug directly to the mice’s livers. This is because it could potentially cause issues if it ends up in other places in the human body. The study found that when the same weight loss drug was delivered systemically (throughout the body), there were more side effects and the effectiveness of the drug was diluted. [3] 

The Weight Loss Study

A group of mice were fed a high-sugar, high-cholesterol, high-fat diet for a period of 10 weeks. A second control group of mice was fed a healthy diet. The group of obese mice received a daily dose of the nanogel, delivered via intraperitoneal injection. Dubbed “Intelligells” by Thayumanavan and his team, these nanogels were selectively directed to various targets. These specific nanogels had been custom-designed by the team to deliver the carrier directly to the liver. Once the carrier is inside the hepatocyte cells, the nanogel bonds are broken down by glutathione, releasing the drug into the system. The thyroid hormone beta receptor then gets activated by the drug. Consequently, this leads to systemic lipid-lowering, fat oxidation, and an increase in bile acid synthesis. [3]

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Results of the Weight Loss Study

The mice were injected with the nanogel weight-loss drug for five weeks. Remarkably, the mice all returned to their initial weight despite still being fed a high-fat diet. Their cholesterol levels also dropped, and any issues with live inflammation were resolved. The team discovered that they were activating the mice’s reverse cholesterol transport pathways, which resulted in a lowering of cholesterol. Additionally, they believe that the increased metabolic rate and activation of fat oxidation are responsible for the weight loss. However, additional studies will need to be undertaken in order to prove their hypothesis. With a better understanding of these mechanisms, new nano-gel carrier drugs can be developed for other liver diseases, too. [3]

The Bottom Line

Obesity is a major global health issue, causing around 2.8 million deaths annually [4]. However, this promising new breakthrough could bring real hope to those struggling with obesity. As we have discovered, scientists have developed a nanogel drug delivery system that directly targets the liver. Their aim is to help reduce weight and cholesterol without the usual side effects seen with other treatments. So far, the method has been highly successful in trials involving mice. Although more research is needed to see how it works in humans, so far, the results are very promising. If proven effective in human trials, this could be a revolutionary solution for millions battling obesity across the globe. 

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