Scientists at the University of Michigan's Life Sciences Institute have found that amlexanox, a drug that has been on the market in Japan for over 25 years to treat asthma and in the United States to treat canker sores, could be an effective weight-loss tool. Amlexanox is an approved off-patent drug, which means cheaper generic brands are available.
The drug targets the IKKE and TBK1 genes in mice, which are instrumental in maintaining metabolic balance. If the same holds true for people, says Alan Saltiel, Mary Sue Coleman director at the Life Sciences Institute it could reduce obesity, decreasing its effects, such as diabetes and fatty liver, in the human body.
One of the major reasons human diets fail, Salitel explained, is that when a person decreases their intake of food, their body's metabolism also slows to offset the difference-- despite anyone's wishes, human bodies don't actually want to lose weight.
IKKE and TBK1, when working together, seem to act as these metaphorical 'brakes' to metabolism, and when activated seem to play a role in increasing energy storage and decreasing the burning of calories, the same lab found in 2009. While experimenting with drugs that may inhibit these pathways, researchers at Michigan stumbled across amlexanox.
The drug has proven very effective on mice with both dietary- and genetically-induced obesity, says the report, released online today in the Nature Medicine journal. Saltiel is working with clinical trial researchers at UMich (to find out whether or not the drug might work on people), and medicinal chemists (to formulate a compound based on amlexanox that will optimize its formula).
One challenge is finding out if people even respond with the same genes; and another is finding a safe and effective dosage for human consumption.
Saltiel's project was supported by the Life Science Institute's Innovation partnership, UMich reports, which provides philanthropic funding and business mentorship to help promising research reach commercialization.
Also involved were the National Institutes of Health, the Michigan Diabetes Research and Training center, The Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health research, and the Nathan Shock Center in the Basic Biology of Aging.
