United States: A new oral nanotherapy targets the small intestine specifically and lessens its functionality in terms of ‘absorbing’ fats from the food we consume, the study reveals.
It is still a very young therapy, but if it works also with people, it will be a phenomenal treatment for diet-induced obesity.
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Recently, by early 2022, the global prevalence of adult overweight was estimated at 43 percent, newatlas.com reported.
Of these, 16 percent lived with obesity. Common knowledge aside, it is established that people who are overweight or obese experience increased chances of acquiring type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some forms of cancer.
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Although fat is metabolized in the body after years of study, many times, actually recognizing a method that will block fat from being absorbed by the intestine poses a lot of challenges.
However, a new study may have the answer: oral nanoparticles that operate topically on the small intestine to suppress the synthesis of an enzyme that contributes to fat digestion.
More from experts
As Dr Wentao Shao, from the School of Medicine at Tongji University, Shanghai, reported, “For years, researchers have studied fat metabolism, but finding an effective way to block fat absorption has been difficult,” newatlas.com reported.
“While most strategies focus on reducing dietary fat intake, our approach targets the body’s fat absorption process directly,” Shao added.
The enzyme of interest is Sterol O-acyltransferase 2 (SOAT2), which is produced from the SOAT2 gene.
Restricted to liver and intestinal cells- hepatocytes and enterocytes, respectively- SOAT2 research has closely linked with reference to atherosclerosis or plaque formation within arteries.
The researchers employed nanoparticles composed of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), which, if ingested, home in the small intestine. They were also able to lower the expression of SOAT2 by enterocytes and thus limit the absorption of fats.
Therefore, when nanotherapy was tried on mice, even those mice that were fed on a high-fat diet saw the percentage of fat they gained reduced and were not obese.
As per Shao, “This oral treatment offers several advantages,” and “It’s non-invasive, has low toxicity, and it has high potential for better patient compliance compared to current obesity treatments, which are often invasive or difficult to maintain. This makes it a promising alternative.”
The researchers also gained an understanding of the mechanism of SOAT2 that is involved in controlling fat absorption. Constitutive knockdown of SOAT2 in the proximal small intestine then leads to the degradation of a lipid transporter, CD36.
It leads to cellular stress through which the E3 ligase RNF3 is recruited to augment CD36 degradation.