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Study to look at asthma drug for treating diabetes, obesity
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This month, researchers will initiate a human study looking at the asthma drug amlexanox for treatment of diabetes and obesity.
In a study published in December, Alan R. Saltiel, PhD, the Mary Sue Coleman Director of the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan, and colleagues showed success with the drug in an animal model. Obese mice treated with the drug had a renewed sensitivity to catecholamines, utilized excess energy and returned to normal size, according to a press release in which Saltiel said amlexanox interferes with the expression of IKK-epsilon and TBK1, genes associated with obesity.
“There is considerable evidence to suggest that in states of obesity, adipose tissue becomes less sensitive to catecholamines because IKK-epsilon and TBK1 act as a sort of brake on metabolism, and that this reduced sensitivity in turn reduces energy expenditure,” Saltiel said in a press release. “By releasing the brake, amlexanox seems to free the metabolic system of mice to burn more and possibly store less energy in response to catecholamines.”
The university announced that the placebo-controlled human study will begin this month in hopes of showing efficacy of amlexanox, which is currently used internationally in different formulations for treating asthma and canker sores, in obese humans and patients with diabetes.
Alan Satiel Lab; Accessed Jan. 3, 2013.