FASgen Announces A New Discovery In Obesity Research

Main Category: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Also Included In: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 22 Dec 2007 - 0:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

FASgen is pleased to report the publication of important new research results in the obesity field using FAS89B, one of the Company's proprietary compounds. FASgen is a leader in the field of research into selective inhibition of fatty acid synthase (FASi), and has conducted extensive research in the area of metabolic disease disorders, specifically for the treatment of obesity and fatty liver disease. The Company has a long-standing cooperation with The Johns Hopkins University, and that joint research has produced the new discoveries in the regulation of weight loss by the stimulation of carnitinepalmitoyl-transferase-1 (CPT-1). FAS89B was characterized in vitro as a selective inhibitor of brain CPT-1 and produced in vivo results in mice of decreased feeding for three days and persistent weight loss of six days, with no evidence of conditioned taste aversion. See, "Pharmacological Stimulation of Brain Carnitine-Transerase-1 Decreases Food Intake and Body Weight," Ronnett, et al, Am J Physiol Regul Integr Physiol (December 8, 2007). This new discovery adds another tool for FASgen to use, in addition to FASi and GPATi compounds already in research, in its ongoing program of research into the field of treatment for obesity and fatty liver disease.

About FASgen, Inc.: FASgen, Inc. is a drug development company founded in 2000 by four distinguished Johns Hopkins researchers to create new therapeutic products based on the selective inhibition of fatty acid biosynthesis. The Company has the exclusive license from Johns Hopkins to more than 15 years of research in the field, which research continues under a sponsored research agreement with the University.

The Company has designed and synthesized many compounds that selectively inhibit fatty acid biosynthesis. One group of these compounds holds great promise for new highly specific therapeutics for cancer; additional compounds have the potential of specific therapeutics for obesity and related metabolic disorders; and, an additional group of compounds have the potential of specific therapeutics for TB, including multiple drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) and latent TB infections that affect one third of the world's population. For more information, visit FASgen's website at http://www.fasgen.com.

FASgen, Inc.
http://www.fasgen.com