Obesity is a huge and increasing medical problem, with inadequate therapeutic options. One approach to the treatment of obesity is long-term pharmacotherapy. While only one modestly effective drug marketed in the United States (orlistat), two drugs have recently been approved by the FDA (lorcaserin, Qsymia). The limited efficacy of single agents has lead to the idea that combination therapy will be required. To facilitate combinations, we are testing the physiology of dinitrophenol (DNP) as a model system for chemical uncoupling as a treatment of obesity. We are currently designing animal protocols that will use mice to explore combination therapy for obesity. A specific interest is the rational combination of a centrally (brain) acting drug with one that acts peripherally (outside of the brain). This approach has potential to allow use of lower doses of drugs with complementary mechanisms of action, minimizing adverse effects while maintaining weight reduction efficacy, via targeting of both metabolic rate and food intake. We are also exploring the use of mice housed under thermoneutral conditions to see if this provides a metric of efficacy translatable into humans.

Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$280,091
Indirect Cost
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State
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Reitman, Marc L (2018) Of mice and men - environmental temperature, body temperature, and treatment of obesity. FEBS Lett 592:2098-2107
Jain, Shalini; Panyutin, Anna; Liu, Naili et al. (2018) Melanotan II causes hypothermia in mice by activation of mast cells and stimulation of histamine 1 receptors. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 315:E357-E366
Xiao, Cuiying; Piñol, Ramón A; Carlin, Jesse Lea et al. (2017) Bombesin-like receptor 3 (Brs3) expression in glutamatergic, but not GABAergic, neurons is required for regulation of energy metabolism. Mol Metab 6:1540-1550
Reitman, Marc L (2017) How Does Fat Transition from White to Beige? Cell Metab 26:14-16
Reitman, Marc L (2016) Hormone-Replacement Therapy for Melanocyte-Stimulating Hormone Deficiency. N Engl J Med 375:278-9
Hall, Kevin D; Chen, Kong Y; Guo, Juen et al. (2016) Energy expenditure and body composition changes after an isocaloric ketogenic diet in overweight and obese men. Am J Clin Nutr 104:324-33
Lateef, Dalya M; Xiao, Cuiying; Reitman, Marc L (2015) Search for an Endogenous Bombesin-Like Receptor 3 (BRS-3) Ligand Using Parabiotic Mice. PLoS One 10:e0142637
Xiao, Cuiying; Goldgof, Margalit; Gavrilova, Oksana et al. (2015) Anti-obesity and metabolic efficacy of the ?3-adrenergic agonist, CL316243, in mice at thermoneutrality compared to 22°C. Obesity (Silver Spring) 23:1450-9
Chen, Kong Y; Muniyappa, Ranganath; Abel, Brent S et al. (2015) RM-493, a melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) agonist, increases resting energy expenditure in obese individuals. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 100:1639-45
Abreu-Vieira, Gustavo; Xiao, Cuiying; Gavrilova, Oksana et al. (2015) Integration of body temperature into the analysis of energy expenditure in the mouse. Mol Metab 4:461-70

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