Has a weight loss drug that actually causes fat to be metabolized been found? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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A drug that causes fat to be metabolized, and in particular around organs like the heart where fat is especially dangerous, has been shown to work well in male mice, research by David Kass, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins, and colleagues has shown.

Kass: An oral med. It’s been used already in people. There are a couple of large pharmaceutical companies that are developing PD9 inhibitors, almost entirely for neurocognitive diseases. We have side effect profile already and it’s pretty benign. There was no significant adverse effect signature of this oral molecule.  :17

Kass says only male mice and females without ovaries benefit however.

Kass: There’s a pretty striking sex dimorphism. It worked in males. It doesn’t work in intact female mice at all, but you take their ovaries out it works as well if not even better than the males.  :13

Kass notes that the drug has already been used in people so it may be a short step to clinical trials. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.