It has long been known that obesity is an inflammatory disease, i.e. a chronic defensive reaction of the body to stress caused by excess nutrients.
In a new study from Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, researchers found that digoxin, a drug already in use against heart diseases, could reduce inflammation and leads to a 40% weight loss without any side effects.
Digoxin reduces the production of a molecule called interleukin 17A, or IL-17A, which generally triggers inflammation. The study identifies IL-17A as a causal factor of obesity.
The findings suggest that it is possible to fight obesity by preventing inflammation.
In the study, the team treated obese mice with digoxin and found that IL-17A acts directly on adipose tissue to cause obesity and metabolic syndrome, which includes type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.
Since no effective treatments for obesity and metabolic syndrome are available, the team says digoxin may represent an effective therapeutic option.
The animals, obese due to a high-calorie diet, continued to eat as before when they were taking digoxin. However, they showed activation of their basal metabolism, which results in the burning of excess fat and weight loss.
The tea, already observed weight loss within a few weeks, with no adverse effects. The benefits were maintained for at least eight months, suggesting that resistance mechanisms do not develop.
The team says that obese patients may take digoxin for a short period until weight loss stabilizes, and then follow a healthy diet.
The drug could also be indicated for obesity-related pathologies, such as hypercholesterolemia, hepatic steatosis and type 2 diabetes.
Therapies based on lifestyle changes -changes in diet and physical activity- achieve a weight reduction of approximately 10%, and drugs that target appetite or fat absorption typically result in a loss of body weight between 2% and 7%.
This study provides a possible therapeutic strategy based on a novel approach: fighting obesity by targeting its inflammatory component.
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The study is published in Nature Metabolism. One author of the study is Nabil Djouder.
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