Could an Antibody Drug Help You Shed Pounds?

By Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Nov. 2, 2020 (HealthDay News) — An experimental antibody drug that targets one of the body’s key metabolism regulators may help obese people lose weight — at least briefly.

That’s one finding from an early study that tested the injection drug, which mimics the effects of a natural hormone called fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21). In the body, FGF21 helps govern metabolism, calorie-burning and food intake.

Researchers found that a single injection spurred “metabolic improvements” in overweight and obese adults that lasted up to two months. On average, people started eating fewer calories after a week, and saw their “good” HDL cholesterol increase while their levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol, insulin and triglycerides all fell.

Beyond that, their food preferences started to shift away from sweets, and they managed to drop a couple pounds — albeit temporarily.

Experts called the findings “interesting,” but stressed the work is very preliminary.

“The purpose of this study was really to determine dose and to get an idea of proof of concept,” said Dr. Donna Ryan, a professor emerita at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. She was not involved in the study.

It would take much more research to prove the antibody is safe and effective, Ryan said. And that, she added, would be a “long, difficult and expensive proposition.”

She pointed to the bigger picture, saying there is “excitement” in the field of obesity drug development: Researchers are studying how various “molecules” in the body regulate metabolism, and trying to turn those molecules into medication. The injection drug Saxenda, approved in the United States in 2014, is an example, Ryan said.

The new research is of a piece with that, she said.

The findings were published Nov. 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

FGF21 is a hormone that helps control metabolism by stimulating certain receptors in fat tissue, the liver, the pancreas and the central nervous system. Past research has suggested that people who carry certain variants in the FGF21 gene tend to have a sweet tooth and a preference for carbohydrates.