Pharmacological targeting of adipocytes/fat metabolism for treatment of obesity and diabetes.
Obesity is now recognized as a rapidly increasing worldwide threat to health, largely as a result of causing diabetes. Thus, considerable efforts are underway in the pharmaceutical industry to find drugs to treat this condition. Target validation in various academic and industrial laboratories has revealed a number of potential molecular targets in fat cells or adipocytes. By definition, obesity is too much fat, and we here review efforts to treat obesity and, by proxy, diabetes by modulating the metabolic state of adipocytes.
Pilch
Paul F
PF
Department of Biochemistry, Boston University School of Medicine, 80 E. Concord St., Boston, MA 02118, USA. ppilch@bu.edu
Bergenhem
Nils
N
D017667:Adipocytes / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000188:drug therapy*; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D006801:Humans; D050356:Lipid Metabolism; D009765:Obesity / Q000188:drug therapy*