Worldwide, obesity rates have doubled since the 1980s and in the USA alone, almost 40% of adults are obese, which is closely associated with a myriad of metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and arteriosclerosis. Obesity is derived from an imbalance between energy intake and consumption, therefore balancing energy homeostasis is an attractive target for metabolic diseases. One therapeutic approach consists of increasing the number of brown-like adipocytes in the white adipose tissue .
The screening allowed us to discover that zafirlukast, an FDA-approved small molecule drug commonly used to treat asthma, was able to differentiate adipocyte precursors and white-biased adipocytes into functional brown adipocytes. However, zafirlukast is toxic to human cells at higher dosages.
Good fat has no dimples, right?
Now all we need is the metabolite that turns fat into muscle and a drug to stimulate it and we're set