(Genome.gov)
A clinical trial at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in Orlando, Florida will test the weight-control capabilities of orexin, a hormone that activates the body’s brown fat, which converts calories into energy. The trial will take place at the Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes, a joint venture of Sanford-Burnham and Florida Hospital in Orlando.
Preclinical studies by Sanford-Burnham metabolic disease researcher Devanjan Sikder has shown that orexin — an appetite-inducing hormone produced in the brain — promotes weight loss by releasing excess energy as heat instead of storing it. Sikder says his research team “has discovered that orexin activates calorie-burning brown fat, which we consider to be ‘good’ fat, and evidence strongly suggests that human obesity can arise from brown fat dysfunction.”
Orexin deficiency is associated with obesity in both animals and humans, while high orexin levels correlate with leanness. Babies have large numbers of brown fat cells, and use brown fat to moderate body temperature. The trial will test orexin’s ability to activate brown fat in adults, so that calories, which otherwise would be stored as unwanted white fat, can be burned.
Lab tests with mice have shown orexin can reduce fat by 50 percent, even when excess calories are consumed, due to an elevated metabolic rate. The clinical trial will assess orexin’s mode of action, efficacy, and its workings in the human body, as well as evaluate the hormone’s acute effect in stimulating energy expenditure. The study is expected to lead to the development of personalized therapies for treating obesity and metabolic diseases overall.
Read more: U.S. Patent Granted for Peptide-Based Obesity Treatment
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How do you get picked to be part of the study?
I am a 58 year old woman 5’4′ and weigh 162 lbs. Oh, I take medication for high blood pressure, harmones (hysterectomy), and medication to prevent fever blisters. Please let me know if you need a participant and if I could qualify.
Thanks,
Wanda
Thank you Wanda for your question and readership of Science Business. You will need to contact Sanford-Burnham research institute in Orlando to answer that question. The project leader is Dr. Devanjan Sikder, and his telephone number is (407) 745-2085. You should, of course, first consult with your primary care physician. Good luck. – AK
Hi There Alan,
This question may be a little off-topic, The importance of clinical trials to the world of medicine cannot be emphasized enough. They are necessary to ascertain the quality as well as the ability of drugs to be safe palliatives and curatives for a host of ailments and human illness conditions. Whether a drug is safe for human usage and treatment is determined by these trials, which are conducted over animals and then on humans too. Clinical trial management systems are specific modes of software systems of managing the huge amounts of data and culled information related to these clinical trials.
A CTMS (Clinical Trials Management System) takes into account the preparation, performance testing and reporting of clinical trials. There are various sub-parts and sub systems in the trials that need to be tracked and monitored so as to meet the deadlines, conduct tests, file for approvals, follows ups and a host of other important scientific, administrative and legal functions and even some of the sub-functions. In the initial stages, the number of tests, steps and procedures may be simple and a company could use an in-house program. But later when the scope and complexity of the trial management program increases, it would need a sophisticated management that takes into account the various aspects of financial management, communication and time management for effective clinical trials. So, more stable and feature-rich software programs are used at the advanced stages to take care of a host of requirements like patient management, budgeting, compliance with the regulations laid by government and compatibility with some other data management systems.
CTMS can have specific modules that record and document patient registry, patient study calendars, clinical data records and adverse event records. The system is a happy amalgam of biotechnology and pharmacology with the liberal use of information technology. A number of IT companies have built highly complex integrated clinical trial management systems for seamless coordination of various aspects of clinical trials.
Cheerio
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