Researchers at London University are developing a new anti-obesity injection that could be available in as little as five years. Scientists at University College London have been working on a treatment that alters a patient’s hormone levels and results in them losing their appetite.The development of the medication came about when the scientists looked at how having a gastric band fitted effected a patient’s appetite and hormone levels. They discovered that the procedure altered levels of a hormone called ghrelin. Ghrelin is sometimes known as the ‘hunger hormone’ and is responsible for regulating levels of glucose in the body. Now the scientists are hoping to replicate the effects of the hormone in a drug.
The researchers at London University are in the process of developing jabs and nasal sprays that are able to alter a patient’s hormone balance to make him or her feel less hungry. The human trials for the injections have already started. It is hoped that the treatment will replace the need for morbidly obese patient’s to undergo dangerous anti-obesity surgery.
Dr Carel Le Roux, one of the lead scientists, says that finding a medical cure is the only truly viable way forward to tackle the global obesity epidemic. “Diet and lifestyle advice just does not work, as people regain the weight they lose,” said Dr Le Roux, “the only treatment for morbid obesity is surgery, and we need to investigate whether more of it should be done.”
The human trials of the drug have been promising. Patients, who were given three jabs per day, initially lost about 1kg per week. It is hoped that eventually the medication will become available in tablet form. A number of drug companies, including the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, who developed and manufacture Viagra are currently developing products which use this research as their basis.