A new study from Johns Hopkins Medicine has found that a drug first designed for brain diseases may also help people lose weight—even without dieting or exercising.
This drug was originally made to treat serious conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and sickle cell disease. But scientists recently discovered it could help fight obesity, which is a major health problem worldwide.
Obesity can lead to many health issues, such as heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Until now, there has been no simple pill that safely and effectively helps people with severe obesity lose weight.
This new research may be a big step forward. The scientists focused on a protein in the body called PDE9. This protein controls another important molecule called cyclic GMP, which helps cells work properly. PDE9 is similar to PDE5, a protein that drugs like Viagra target.
Although PDE9-blocking drugs are still being tested and are not yet sold under any brand names, they are being studied for many illnesses, including memory loss and heart failure.
The research team had already found in 2015 that PDE9 exists in the heart and may make heart problems worse, especially when someone has high blood pressure. In this new study, they wondered if blocking PDE9 could also help with obesity and other health problems like high cholesterol, high blood sugar, and fatty liver disease.
To test this idea, they used a drug created by Pfizer called PF-04447943. This drug was first developed to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Even though it didn’t work for that purpose, it was found to be safe when tested on over 100 people. It had no major side effects.
In the new study, researchers gave this drug to mice. These mice did not change their food or how much they moved. Still, they lost weight, had better heart function, and less fat in their liver. This is a big deal because it shows the drug might help with obesity and health problems related to it—without changing diet or exercise.
If this success in mice also works in people, the effect could be huge. A person weighing 250 pounds might lose about 50 pounds just by taking this medicine.
Even better, the drug didn’t just lower weight. It also helped the heart and liver, which could lower the risk of other diseases linked to obesity. This means it might become a strong new treatment for people who struggle with their weight and face other health problems at the same time.
In the United States, over 40% of adults are obese. Among women over 60 years old, that number is even higher. Many of these people find it hard to lose weight with just healthy eating and exercise. That’s why finding a helpful, safe medicine could change many lives.
While this research is still in the early stages, it gives hope. Other drugs in the same group are already being tested on people with heart failure, which adds more support to the idea that these drugs may work.
The study was led by Dr. David Kass and published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. It offers new possibilities for treating obesity and improving overall health.
If you care about Alzheimer’s, please read studies about the likely cause of Alzheimer’s disease, and new non-drug treatment that could help prevent Alzheimer’s.
For more health information, please see recent studies about diet that may help prevent Alzheimer’s, and results showing some dementia cases could be prevented by changing these 12 things.
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