Fatostatin Fights Fat Genes – Fat people always say that their genes are at fault and now researchers have discovered a tiny molecule, dubbed “fatostatin” that literally shuts down fat genes.
Fatostatin blocks a well known master controller of fat synthesis, a transcription factor known as SREBP or sterol regulatory element binding proteins, that activate genes involved in making cholesterol and fatty acids.
That blocking action in mice that are genetically prone to obesity causes the animals to become leaner.
It lowers the amount of fat in their livers, as well as their blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
After four weeks, mice injected with fatostatin weighed 12 percent less and had 70 percent lower blood sugar levels, the researchers wrote.
“We are frankly very excited about it,” Salih Wakil of Baylor College of Medicine is quoted as saying. “It goes to the origin of [fat synthesis] – all the way back to gene expression.”
But Wakil, whose team has patented the drug and is looking for a drug company to partner with, hopes this drug may be different. “I am very, very optimistic,” he said.
Unlike cholesterol-lowering statins in use today, which block a single enzyme in the pathway, fatostatin “hits fat from the very beginning,” Motonari Uesugi, who is now at Kyoto University is quoted as saying.
In this way, fatostatin influences many of the genes involved in fat production and in various aspects of the metabolic syndrome that controls a collection of risk factors including obesity, high cholesterol and insulin resistance, which means it could help diabetics as well.
Studies in cell culture showed that fatostatin significantly lowers the activity of 63 genes, including 34 directly associated with fatty acid or cholesterol synthesis.
More detailed analysis reveals that fatostatin blocks SREBP by preventing it from entering the cell nucleus, where it would otherwise switch on the fat-making program. It operates by binding another protein called SCAP, which serves as SREBP’s escort into the nucleus.
And that’s the latest news on fatostatin fights fat genes.
Tags: brown fat, cholesterol, diabetes, diabetes treatment, fat control enzyme discovered, fat people, fatostatin
September 8th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Gotta get me some fatostatin!
September 12th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Very interesting to read it. many thanks !