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Skinny fat, really? In "The skinny fat ," 1 Bruce Spiegelman tells us he is working with the Broad Institute to screen every FDA-approved drug for possible effects on a "brown-fat molecule," PRDM16, reasoning that drugs that act on this molecule might also trigger weight loss. Wouldn't it be smart to determine whether any of these FDA-approved drugs are associated with signifi

Written byScott Freeman

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In "The skinny fat ," 1 Bruce Spiegelman tells us he is working with the Broad Institute to screen every FDA-approved drug for possible effects on a "brown-fat molecule," PRDM16, reasoning that drugs that act on this molecule might also trigger weight loss. Wouldn't it be smart to determine whether any of these FDA-approved drugs are associated with significant weight loss before starting the screening campaign at the molecular level for PRDM16?

For example, say you find a drug that indeed modulates PRDM16 in a bioassay but is not associated with significant weight loss in patients using the drug. Wouldn't that kill the hypothesis? Or, perhaps only a specific type of modulation of PRDM16 would result in a "natural" weight loss. Sounds like an interesting screening strategy and hopefully the results will be made publicly available for studying.

William Nelson
Sodertalje, Sweden
wanelson@hotmail.com

References

In "A waiting trial," 1 which ...

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