Endogenous Protein May be Used to Reverse Metabolic Disorders
A study of obese mice by a Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center research team has found a natural protein to be a powerful regulator in metabolism. The study, published in Scientific Reports, found that the forced expression of the protein through eight treatments over 18 days reduced the weight gain of obese mice by more than a third.
The protein, known as the fibroblast growth factor binding protein (FGFBP3 or BP3 for short), could play a pivotal role in reversing metabolic disorders, such as Type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease. BP3’s ability to modulate metabolism of cells in the body poses the potential to reverse fat accumulation in the liver, says the six-year study’s senior investigator, Anton Wellstein, a professor of oncology and pharmacology at Lombardi.
“It was quite striking to look at the fat composition in the animals that received the treatment,” said Wellstein. “You could feel the weight difference in the animals when you picked them up.” The change was also evident when the mouse livers were examined through a microscope.
The BP3 research falls under the umbrella of the Wellstein lab studies of FGF growth-factor proteins, particularly those that stimulate cancer growth. These types of proteins regulate cell growth, wound healing, and cell metabolism.
“Cell growth and maintenance needs metabolism, and when metabolism goes the wrong way, then you get a disease from it, like diabetes, which damages many organs and may cause blindness,” Wellstein says.
The study is a work in progress; Wellstein’s team is busy seeking a commercial partner that can produce the protein to the FDA quality standards and in amounts required for human studies. He aims to see whether the treatment works as predicted in clinical trials and evaluate the protein’s mechanism of action in clinical studies.
Wellstein views metabolic disease as an “emerging global threat to human health.” According to the World Health Organization, obesity has nearly tripled since 1975 across all ages, while the American Diabetes Association says that people of color have a higher risk for Type 2 diabetes. Diabetes also hits lowincome communities harder than most: A GoodRx analysis found that the cost of insulin has increased 64 percent since January 2014. Wellstein hopes to find an approach that will diminish the negative impacts of the disease.
