Molecule 'Vacuums Up' Fat from Mice

[On the Road]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new approach being used to fight cancer may also help fight fat, U.S. researchers said on Sunday. They said blocking a certain protein seems to literally vacuum fat off mice.

When fat mice were injected with the new "fat-zapper" every day for a month, they all slimmed down to normal weight with no visible side-effects, the researchers reported in the June issue of Nature Medicine.

---snip

It makes sense, Arap argues -- fat cells grow and proliferate quickly just as cancer cells do. Like tumors, they build themselves a scaffold of tiny blood vessels called capillaries for sustenance.

Cancer drugs tackle different proteins involved in building blood vessels. Arap's team looked for a protein that might be found only in the blood vessels that feed fat cells. They found one. Prohibitin is active on the surface of fat-feeding blood vessels. They also found a monoclonal antibody -- a synthetic immune system molecule -- that finds and attaches to prohibitin alone.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=570&ncid=753&e=10&u=/nm/20040510/sc_nm/science_fat_dc

[Dogmudgeon]

1. The REAL "Miracle Obesity Drug"

Imagine a drug that could speed the human metabolism by 10-50% without inducing the speedy, jittery feeling that amphetamine produces? A drug that will cause the predictable loss of 2-5 pounds per week with no dieting. A drug that's so cheap and easy to make that it could be sold for 99% profit, and put into diet food, too?

The drug is dinitrophenol. It's an insecticide. It's been making a comeback among jocks, and if you do manage to have the bad fortune to score some, say good-bye to your liver.

And yes, it can kill you. No, let me clarify that -- it will kill you.

But better dead than fat, right?

--bkl

[eleonora]

2. America's obsession

Another fine example of America's obsession with losing the gut without getting off the couch and letting go of the double-cheese pizza.