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Virginia Tech drug researcher develops 'fat burning' molecule that has implications for treatment of obesity (Science Daily)
"Obesity is the biggest health problem in the United States. But, it is hard for people to lose weight and keep it off; being on a diet can be so difficult. So, a pharmacological approach, or a drug, could help out and would be beneficial for all of society," said Webster Santos, professor of chemistry and the Cliff and Agnes Lilly Faculty Fellow of Drug Discovery in the College of Science at Virginia Tech.
Santos and his colleagues have recently identified a small mitochondrial uncoupler, named BAM15, that decreases the body fat mass of mice without affecting food intake and muscle mass or increasing body temperature. Additionally, the molecule decreases insulin resistance and has beneficial effects on oxidative stress and inflammation.
The findings, published in Nature Communications on May 14, 2020, hold promise for future treatment and prevention of obesity, diabetes, and especially nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a type of fatty liver disease that is characterized by inflammation and fat accumulation in the liver. In the next few years, the condition is expected to become the leading cause of liver transplants in the United States.
Mitochondrial uncoupler BAM15 reverses diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance in mice (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16298-2) (DX)
Mitochondrial uncoupler BAM15 inhibits artery constriction and potently activates AMPK in vascular smooth muscle cells (open, DOI: 10.1016/j.apsb.2018.07.010) (DX)
BAM15‐mediated mitochondrial uncoupling protects against obesity and improves glycemic control (open, DOI: 10.15252/emmm.202012088) (DX)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @04:09PM (2 children)
When my dad went to high school in urban New Jersey, waaay back in the dark ages, gym class was every day and by high school everyone - every boy, every girl - started each gym class with a one mile run. So if you lived in an apartment and didn't have a safe yard to play in, you still got exercise. If you were too busy taking care of your baby brother or your sick grandmother in the evening, you still got exercise. If you were working in the family restaurant or farm in the evening, you still got exercise. If your teachers buried you in homework and you were too busy to do anything else, you still got exercise. If you lived in a neighborhood with high crime rates and it wasn't safe for you to go outside, you still got exercise. And yes, if you were sitting on your ass from after school until you went to bed watching I Love Lucy reruns, you still got exercise.
There are dozens of reasons we need to bring that back into the education system.
And for the adults, far more jobs had physical labor. There were trucks and forklifts and jackhammers, but far fewer white collar jobs and far fewer automated aspects of blue collar work. And to be clear, manual labor is not a universally wonderful thing - most men in my grandfather's generation were nearly cripples in their 60s from the wear and tear on their bodies from forty years of manual labor. That is, those that were still alive were nearly cripples. A good minority didn't live that long because of lung disease from the work, or alcoholism because they used alcohol to cope with chronic pain.
I'm not sure what the solution is there. My health does suffer because I sit at a desk all day, but my neighbor that does roofing is wracked with joint and back pain and also in treatment for skin cancer.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @05:25PM (1 child)
Take the macho horseshit out of gym class first. A class to exercise is a good idea. I don't need the toxic masculinity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2020, @12:30AM
Absolutely. One of my kids wants to be a gym teacher, and I keep telling him: a gym teacher isn't there for the youth athletes. The youth athletes don't need a gym teacher. The gym teacher is there for everyone else, to help them develop an enjoyment of exercise that they will carry with them through their entire lives.
Most gym teachers don't figure that out.