Focus Area Update on Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism: March 2020

Focus Area update: Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism

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ESE Focus Area Update:
Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism

Sharing knowledge

enabling collaboration

Designing a new therapy against type 2 diabetes

Mark Febbraio and colleagues have engineered a 

chimeric cytokine, called IC7Fc, which has CNTF-like, but IL-6-receptor-dependent, signaling. IC7Fc shows potent therapeutic effects in preclinical models of obesity and type 2 diabetes, while being devoid of inflammatory activity and immunogenicity, which are side effects that have halted the therapeutic use of CNTF or IL-6 analogues in the past.

Alternate day fasting and its impact on metabolism in healthy humans

Alternate day fasting has become a popular weight loss strategy. In a randomised controlled trial, Madeo and colleagues now demonstrate that this strategy (36-hour water fast and 12-hour feast) is safe and effective in reducing body weight and metabolic disease risk in healthy, non-obese subjects.

Prevalence of endocrine disorders in obese patients

Most obese patients think that their excess body weight might be due to endocrine disorders. However, this is rarely the case and endocrine changes are more often the consequence of obesity. Read this systematic review and meta-analysis, which provides data from 68 studies on this topic. Also, in the same issue of the European Journal of Endocrinology read the ESE Clinical Guideline on work-up of patients with obesity.

Prevalence of hypercortisolism in patients with obesity: 0.87%.

Drug for the treatment of overactive bladder increases metabolic activity and improves glucose homeostasis

Two US studies from the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD and the University of Kentucky, KY, report that the β3-adrenergic receptor agonist Mirabegron, which is approved only for the treatment of overactive bladder, increases brown adipose tissue activity, HDL cholesterol and adiponectin plasma concentrations, as well as improving insulin sensitivity in healthy volunteers. The latter beneficial effect is also observed in obese, insulin-resistant subjects. The authors suggest that β3-adrenergic receptor agonists should be further investigated as treatment for metabolic diseases.