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The hormone leptin, combined with one of two US-approved drugs, may suppress appetite in overweight people, making it a potentially powerful weapon in the fight against obesity, according to a study published Tuesday.

An overweight woman walks in Paris
© AFP/File

Leptin tells the brain to stop eating once the stomach is full, but fails to work effectively in most obese people, according to the study by researchers at the Harvard Medical School.

The research found that the two drugs -- Phenyl Butyric Acid (PBA) and Tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) -- appeared to act in mice as "leptin sensitizers," combating "leptin resistance" in the brain's hypothalamus.

The hypothalamus is the primary brain region that responds to leptin, sending a signal that curbs appetite.

"The results presented in this study provide evidence that chemical chaperones, particularly the PBA and TUDCA, can be used as leptin-sensitizing agents," said Umut Ozcan, a physician and author of the Harvard study, which appears in the January 7 edition of the journal 'Cell Metabolism."

"Normal mice treated with the drugs dropped some weight," he said. "Our study is the first success in sensitizing obese mice on a high-fat diet to leptin," he said.

Scientists hope the drugs may enhance the hormone's ability to trigger feelings of satiation that tell most healthy people when to put down their forks.

"Our results may define a novel treatment option for obesity." Ozcan said, hailing the results as "very exciting."

"If it works in humans, it could treat obesity," he said, while touting the safety and effectiveness of the two drugs.

The two medications are normally used to treat maladies other than obesity, including neurological diseases like Alzheimer's and Huntington's.

PBA also often is prescribed to treat liver dysfunction and cystic fibrosis, while TUDCA has been used for centuries in Chinese medicine, and is used to treat liver ailments.

©AFP

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