Adipose tissue is responsible for the many negative effects that obesity and overweight have on our metabolic health. However, there are two types of fat: the more common white one, in which excess calories are stored, and the brown one, which on the contrary, helps burn calories to protect the body from the cold. By activating this function of brown fat it would therefore be possible to lose weight practically effortlessly. And this is what researchers from the University of Bonn and the University of Southern Denmark hope to achieve, who in a study just published in the journal Nature Metabolism have described the discovery of a “molecular switch”, capable of reactivating brown fat.
The discovery concerns the activity of a protein called AC3-AT, which in mice appears to act by slowing down the activity of adipocytes in brown adipose tissue. In the study, two groups of rodents were fed a high-fat diet for 15 weeks. One of the two was made up of normal mice, while those in the second group were animals engineered to prevent the production of AC3-AT protein in their bodies.
At the end of 15 weeks, the researchers examined the specimens from the two groups, discovering that those without Ac3-AT had gained less weight and had better metabolic parameters than the normal ones. “Looking ahead, I think identifying strategies to block the action of AC3-At is a promising strategy to safely activate brown fat, and address obesity and related health problems,” explains Hande Topel, researcher from the University of Southern Denmark who participated in the study. “By investigating mice genetically lacking AC3-AT, we found that they are protected from becoming obese, in part because their bodies are simply better at burning calories, and they can boost their metabolism by activating brown fat.”
The research, of course, is still in its early stages. But if the results were confirmed by further studies, AC3-AT would prove to be an ideal target for the development of new, revolutionary, anti-obesity drugs: by blocking its action, it would in fact be possible to induce brown adipose tissue to burn excess calories, ensuring rapid weight loss for those struggling with obesity or overweight problems.