This medication mimics diet and stops weight gain – no calories cut

Researchers found that a drug called Butionine sulfamin (BSO) could mimic the powerful anti-obesity effects of a dedicated diet, providing promising new approaches to new approaches that do not require dietary restrictions.

The study, published April 7 in the journal Aging, shows that BSO can prevent fat accumulation while allowing normal dietary habits – the advantages of many current weight loss methods that rely on appetite suppression or strict dietary changes.

How drugs replace challenging diets

The study, led by scientists from the Science Development Foundation, is based on previous findings on sulfur amino acid restriction (SAAR), a specialist diet that significantly reduces methionine and cysteine ​​intake. Although Saar showed significant health benefits in laboratory animals, including reducing 50% of the weight of obese mice in just three weeks, it turns out that implementing this diet in humans is full of challenges.

The researchers noted in the paper that “data suggest that BSO summarizes the anti-obesity effects caused by SAAR, and that GSH plays a mechanical role,” referring to glutathione (GSH), a compound that seems crucial to the way diet and drugs work.

The focus of the study is whether pharmacologically reducing GSH levels in the body (which naturally occurs during the SAAR diet) can produce similar benefits without changing the diet. This approach may provide an easier way to improve the same health improvement.

Impressive results prevent fat accumulation

The team conducted a 13-week high-fat diet study in obese mice. They divided the mice into four groups: one received a control diet (CD), the other received a SAAR diet, one third received a SAAR diet plus N-acetylcysteine ​​(NAC), increased GSH, and the fourth received a control diet plus BSO.

People who received BSO had significantly reduced weight gain compared to mice on a standard high-fat diet. Although not as dramatic as the role of the Sal diet itself, BSO-treated mice maintained stable weight throughout the study despite a high-fat diet.

Major findings in BSO processing

• Prevent further weight gain despite consumption of a high-fat diet
• Reduced liver fat droplet frequency (31% of control level)
• Epididymis fat warehouse weight reduction (75% of control level)
• Overall fat mass reduction (72% of the control group)
• Preserve lean muscle mass (reduces muscle compared to Saar diet)
• No reduction in food intake (unlike many traditional weight loss treatments)

It is particularly noteworthy that BSO selectively targets fat accumulation without affecting the quality of the lean, which is a significant advantage over many current weight management approaches that usually lead to muscle loss as well as fat reduction.

“BSO mice showed all SAAR-induced changes, with two significant differences, namely smaller effect sizes than SAAR diets, and higher preference for renal molecular changes than liver,” the researchers reported.

Understand the basic mechanisms

This study delves into the molecular mechanism behind the BSO effect. Both the SAAR diet and BSO reduce glutathione (GSH) levels in the body, which seems to trigger a series of beneficial metabolic changes.

At the molecular level, BSO reduces the expression of genes involved in fat production and storage, including SCD1, GPAM, MOGAT1 and MOGAT2. This reflects some of the effects seen in the Saar diet, although the diet has other effects on the genes involved in lipolysis, which were not observed in BSO.

Interestingly, although the Saar diet plays the strongest role in the liver, BSO shows a more obvious activity in the kidneys. Despite these differences in their main role, both methods lead to increased serine levels in the liver – a change associated with reduced fat production.

Safe alternative dietary restrictions

Since obesity affects millions of people around the world and leads to many chronic diseases, it is crucial to discover effective and practical interventions. Traditional weight management often requires strict dietary adherence or appetite-reducing medications, which many find difficult to maintain for a long time.

The researchers monitored several health markers throughout the study to evaluate the safety of BSO. Plasma indicators of liver and renal function remained normal, indicating that the tested dose of continuous BSO did not cause toxicity to these organs over a 13-week period.

What makes this discovery particularly promising is that BSO has been used in human clinical trials of other diseases and may simplify its approval process for the treatment of metabolic diseases.

Future direction and commitment

Could this compound represent a new approach to treat obesity and metabolic diseases that do not require strict dietary changes? The team believes that these findings require further investigation.

They concluded that “animal and human pilot studies to combat obesity” were highly guaranteed, noting that the ability of the compound to prevent fat gain without reducing food intake or lean mass makes it particularly promising.

As the research continues, this pharmacological approach may provide a practical alternative to those struggling with weight management to address critical health care challenges through a new mechanism targeting the fundamental process of fat accumulation rather than simply reducing calorie intake.