Qld team hits new target in fat research

A research team at the University of Queensland has identified a promising new target for an anti-obesity therapy: an enzyme that appears to have a central role in the development of fat-storage cells called adipocytes.

Dr Jon Whitehead's team at the Centre for Diabetes and Endocrine Research isn't revealing the enzyme's identity, for commercial reasons. But Whitehead said the enzyme is already known for another role in cells, and at least one drug in clinical use disrupts its action, so if research confirms its potential as an obesity-drug target, the path to market could be short and relatively inexpensive.

Whitehead's team identified the enzyme as a likely player in lipogenesis while studying insulin-mediated cellular signalling pathways in diabetes. "It appeared to be associated with increased fatty tissue mass, so we asked whether it had an important role in lipid accumulation," he said.

The enzyme appears to be required for the proliferation of the precursor cells that give rise to adipocytes, as well as their maturation. Mature adipocytes can swell to 1000 times their original volume as they accumulate lipids.

Whitehead said currently available weight-control drugs like amphetamines have unpleasant side-effects including anxiety and disturbed heart function.

The UQ researchers have new data confirming that that small-molecule compounds that perturb the enzyme's activity significantly reduce the proliferation of pre-adipocytes, and lipogenesis. They are developing a knockout mouse to determine whether animals lacking the enzyme remain slim on an unrestricted diet.