Drug development strategies for the treatment of obesity: how to ensure efficacy, safety, and sustainable weight loss
Barja-Fernandez S., Leis R., Casanueva FF., Seoane LM.
Narrative Review, published in Drug Des Devel Ther (2014) — summary generated from the PubMed abstract.
Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.
- Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
- Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
- Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
- Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
- Emerging · Emerging topic under active research
This page is generated from the PubMed record. The Thai description is an automated summary of bibliographic fields and the abstract, not a full translation, and is not medical advice.
- Study type
- Narrative Review
- Journal
- Drug Des Devel Ther (2014)
- Reported sample size
- —
- Source database
- Europe PMC
- PMID
- 25489237
- PMCID
- PMC4257050
- DOI
- 10.2147/dddt.s53129
- Citations
- 13
Abstract (original English)
The prevalence of obesity has increased worldwide, and approximately 25%-35% of the adult population is obese in some countries. The excess of body fat is associated with adverse health consequences. Considering the limited efficacy of diet and exercise in the current obese population and the use of bariatric surgery only for morbid obesity, it appears that drug therapy is the only available method to address the problem on a large scale. Currently, pharmacological obesity treatment options are limited. However, new antiobesity drugs acting through central nervous system pathways or the peripheral adiposity signals and gastrointestinal tract are under clinical development. One of the most promising approaches is the use of peptides that influence the peripheral satiety signals and brain-gut axis such as GLP-1 analogs. However, considering that any antiobesity drug may affect one or several of the systems that control food intake and energy expenditure, it is unlikely that a single pharmacological agent will be effective as a striking obesity treatment. Thus, future strategies to treat obesity will need to be directed at sustainable weight loss to ensure maximal safety. This strategy will probably require the coadministration of medications that act through different mechanisms.
What this study does not prove
- • This study does not prove SVF is an approved treatment or a replacement for standard care.
- • This is a narrative review: it collects no new patient data and does not systematically appraise evidence quality.
Evidence level
Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.
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