Type 2 diabetes is linked to obesity, in fact the high rates of overweight and sedentary lifestyle are making it increasingly frequent in minors, and now there is also the liraglutide, one of the drugs that help treat it.
The Team of the Molecular Medicine Research Center and Chronic Diseases of the University of Santiago de Compostela, led by researcher Rubén Nogueiras, recently discovered that the use of this compound also helps reduce the weight of patients.
Rubén Nogueiras and his team from the Molecular Medicine Research Center and Chronic Diseases of the University of Santiago de Compostela.
"Liraglutida is approved for the fight against obesity since 2014, but in this article we explain in detail the mechanism by which body mass decreases," explains the scientist to El Huffpost in telephone conversation.
That article referred to, LPG-1 agonism stimulalates brown adipose tissue themogenesis and browning this.
"The investigation provides the mechanism, since until now it was not known how the liraglutidBody mass and increase energy expenditure, "he continues."This had been proven very short term with the use of lyreglutant injections, but these patients had never been monitored for so long."
In the long term, patients with obesity treated with liraglutida decrease body mass and increase energy expenditure.
Nogueiras and their team have put on the role that it is not necessary to carry out a special diet or physical exercise so that patients experience a 5% decrease in body fat."This aesthetic does not mean anything but at the clinical level it is very important because the patient's profile greatly improves," he explains."What is sought in an antiobesity treatment is not that an obese person becomes thin and slender, a decrease in fat is sought because that excess causes very harmful effects on the body. Apparently it may seem like a small decrease, but it is fundamentalFor the patient, "he adds.
Patients should have morbid obesity and a metabolic alteration associated with obesity such as hypertension, cholesterol or the same type 2 diabetes.
Its article also serves to corroborate a fact that was known since 2014: the type of patients to which the treatment is advised."They must have morbid obesity, a body mass index greater than 30, and a metabolic alteration associated with obesity such as hypertension, cholesterol or the same type 2 diabetes. Not all obese patients can be treated with this drug."In fact, despite the high indices of overweight and obesity in minors, this treatment cannot be used in this type of patients."It is not approved for children, it has to be in adults," he clarifies.
How it works
"What we have seen in rodents is that the liraglutida produces the inhibition of the AMPK kinase in the hypothalamus and this causes brown fat to be activated," Nogueiras continues.
"The human being has two types of fats: the white fat, which is what we all know, the person responsible for that storage of lipids that accumulate in the belly or in the hips; and then we have the brown fat, which does everythingOtherwise, it burns lipids, "he continues."This fat burns calories to form heat and that increases energy expenditure. That is more or less whatIt makes the liraglutida: acts in the hypothalamus, a concrete area of the brain, by inhibition of the kinase protein, and activates the brown fat. "
Liraglutida acts in the hypothalamus, by inhibition of the kinase protein, and activates brown fat.
In the case of type 2 diabetes patients, the liraglutida acts in a totally different way.It would be necessary to start from the base that the dose is much lower and after the liraglutida is an analogue of the hormone called LPG-1."Analogues have been used for years to the treatment of type 2 diabetes because what they do is stimulate insulin release in the pancreas," explains Nogueiras.This LPG-1 acts on all the organs of the body and, depending on the organ, its function is different."In the brain it was already known that intake decreased and it has now been discovered that it activates brown fat."
Following steps and following investigations
Nogueiras and his team collect the award on Tuesday without knowing the future of his investigation."That is already decided by pharmaceutical companies. What will happen to her," he explains.
According to this researcher, both he and his team will no longer take more steps in this research: "Our responsibility is to continue looking for another mechanism or other target that can help prevent obesity or type 2 diabetes, but the use of a specific drug dependsof each pharmaceutical company ".
That new work that speaks is focused on the treatment of fatty liver, which is normally developed in obese people."This excess fat in the liver directly affects liver functions, it is a disease that is growing a lot because obesity rates are shooting every year more and is a disease that currently has no treatment," he explains."Now we are focused on trying to describe new targets for treatment."