Drug That Targets Blood Flow to Fat Cells Is Shown to Slim Down Obese Monkeys
Fat Monkey Wikimedia Commons A team at the University of Texas has created a fat-burning drug that doesn't so much burn fat as it seeks and destroys it. Instead of suppressing appetite or increasing metabolism, this drug systematically destroys the blood supply to fat tissue--and in a recent study, obese rhesus monkeys lost 11 percent of their body weight when treated with the drug. The drug works in a totally different way than other drugs, which seek to replace or supplant the ways humans eat and behave by altering appetite or energy level. This one works on the inside, and it's actually kind of terrifying in detail. It has a homing agent that seeks blood supply to fatty tissue, zooms right over to it and attaches itself. Then it delivers a peptide which kills the blood cells, at which point the fat cells are simply absorbed. The team tested the drug...