UVA discovers possible obesity treatment for women

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Researchers at the University of Virginia have identified a potential way to battle the health effects of obesity and type two diabetes in women.

“We wanted to see if we could treat obese the mouse with this small drug which could potentially help the female mice at least to reduce their fat mass and increase their metabolic phenotypes,” PhD with UVA’s Center for Public Health Genomics Qianyi Yang said.

The lab worked on a specific protein in mice. They found by changing the protein, they could change where the fat was stored. More research will be needed, but they say the mouse findings are closely linked to what we see in women.

“We have already engineered a mouse that has increased levels of this protein in the fat cell. We’re going to characterize that mouse in great detail to make sure that there is no adverse side effects, basically of this process,” said Mete Civelek, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering.

They are now working to translate the drug from the lab to a real world treatment.

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