2017-08-27 12:42:41
In 2015, around 600 million adults and 100 million children were obese, and another million or more were overweight. Obesity leads to an increase in white adipose tissue, a tissue formed mostly by a particular type of adipocyte, the fat-storing cell par excellence.
There are also brown adipocytes. Instead of accumulating fat, these adipocytes are specialized in burning it to generate heat. The function of these adipocytes is critical after birth, when we emerge into an outside world much colder, in every sense, than our mother’s womb. Without the generation of heat by the brown adipose tissue, in which these adipocytes accumulate, we would die at birth.
A few years ago, the existence of beige adipocytes was discovered. These adipocytes are found inside the white adipose tissue and originate from the white adipose tissue in response to various environmental circumstances, such as cold.
If we could induce by some means the transformation of white adipocytes into beige, it would be a way to fight obesity. Well, science has revealed that this transformation can be induced by a drug that acts on receptor proteins with which we have been working for several years at the Faculty of Medicine of Albacete, from where we have contributed to increasing the understanding of their functioning in the tissue. adipose and other cells. These are NOTCH receivers. The drug in question, called dibenzazepine, inhibits the activity of these receptors.
A serious problem is that NOTCH receptors are not only found in adipose tissue and their correct functioning is essential for many other tissues and organs. This drug cannot be administered indiscriminately, or it can be very toxic. Its administration must be done in a controlled manner.
Researchers at Purdue University, in Indiana, USA, achieve this goal by using nanoparticles that are capable of enclosing the drug inside. Loaded with dibenzazepine and injected into the white adipose tissue of obese mice, the particles were taken up by white adipocytes, the drug was released inside them, NOTCH receptors were inhibited, and the white adipocytes turned beige. As a result, the mice improved their obesity symptoms, lost weight, and lowered blood glucose levels.
More information on Jorge Laborda’s Blog: Anti-obesity nanoparticles
Referencia: Jiang et al., Dibenzazepine-Loaded Nanoparticles Induce Local Browning of White Adipose Tissue to Counteract Obesity, Molecular Therapy (2017),
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