A new way to target high rates of obesity

LISTEN: Associate Professor Anthony Don speaks to ABC RN Breakfast host Fran Kelly.

A novel drug is being touted as a major step forward in the battle against Australia’s escalating rates of obesity and associated metabolic diseases. As it stands, 2 in 3 adults in Australia are classified as being overweight or obese. A long-term study between researchers at the Centenary Institute and UNSW Sydney has led to the creation of a drug which targets an enzyme linked to insulin resistance – a key contributor of metabolic diseases, such as Type II diabetes.

The study has been published in the highly-regarded scientific journal Nature Communications. Surprisingly, although the drug was very effective at reducing the lipids of interest in skeletal muscle, it did not prevent mice (which had been fed a high-fat diet to induce metabolic disease) from developing insulin resistance. Instead, it prevented the mice from depositing and storing fat by increasing their ability to burn fat in skeletal muscle.

“From here, I would like to develop drugs which target both the Ceramide Synthase 1 and 6 enzymes together, and see whether it produces a much stronger anti-obesity and insulin sensitising response. Although these drugs need more work before they are suitable for use in the clinic, our work so far has been a very important step in that direction,” says Centenary Institute’s Associate Professor Anthony Don.

Centenary PhD student Ameline Lim must also be recognised for her role in conducting a significant amount of the laboratory work and data analysis throughout the project, which formed the basis for her PhD thesis.

Read the full media release.

(Pictured: Centenary’s Associate Professor Anthony Don)