Anti-Obesity Vaccine Reduces Food Consumption in Animals
Date: 8.6.2011
A new therapeutic vaccine to treat obesity by suppressing the appetite-stimulating hormone ghrelin decreases food intake and increases calorie burning in mice, a new study finds.
"An anti-ghrelin vaccine may become an alternate treatment for obesity, to be used in combination with diet and exercise," said Mariana Monteiro, MD, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Porto in Portugal. She is lead investigator of the study.
Compared with unvaccinated controls, vaccinated mice -- both normal-weight and obese mice -- developed increasing amounts of specific anti-ghrelin antibodies, increased their energy expenditure and decreased their food intake, the authors reported. Within 24 hours after the first vaccination injection, obese mice ate 82 percent of the amount that control mice ate, and after the final vaccination shot they ate only 50 percent of what unvaccinated mice ate, Monteiro said.
For more:
