Molecule could hold key to dramatic weight loss

Doctors know that patients with advanced cancer often lose interest in food which causes malnutrition, but researchers have now found that those patients have high levels of a molecule known as MIC-1.

When they gave an antidote to the molecule to mice with no appetite, they started eating again and putting on weight.

"The effects are very dramatic. Mice lost a considerable amount of their body weight [but when] treated with anti-body, regained within [a ] couple of days normal body weight," The Garvan Institute's Dr Herbert Herzog said.

And the reverse happened with overweight mice.

"If we took MIC-1 protein and injected this into either normal or obese mice, they stopped eating because they lost their appetite," Professor Sam Breit said, from St Vincent's Hospital's Centre for Immunology in Sydney.

"Because of this they lost weight - we expect the same will happen in patients.

"From the results from animal studies we have done, we would expect quite a significant reduction in body weight in obese subjects," Dr Herzog said.

So far, there are no indications the treatment causes any side effects.

"If anything, it's anti-inflammatory - not pro-inflammatory - and that's good. If anything it's anti-cancer - not pro-cancer," Professor Breit said.

The next step will be to run human clinical trials to see if the dramatic results in mice can be replicated in humans.

Once the scientists have secured commercial backing for the discovery, clinical trials could start in as little as three years.

The findings have been published in the journal Nature Medicine. © 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation