Current Status of Medical Therapy and New Targets for Anti-Obesity Drug Development

Abstract

Obesity is considered to be caused by an imbalance in individual energy. The basic therapies for obesity are appropriate dietary restriction for the purpose of decreasing energy intake and effective exercise for the purpose of promoting energy expenditure. At present, drug therapies for obesity are secondary treatments. Therapeutic strategies using pharmacotherapy are divided into the following three types: 1) suppressing appetite, 2) inhibiting nutritional absorption, and 3) accelerating energy expenditure. Mazindol and Phentermine have long been recognized as drugs for increasing satiety, and Orlistat and Cetilistat have been developed as drugs that inhibit lipid absorption from the intestine. Moreover, ß3 agonists have been developed to accelerate energy combustion. In this chapter, we first introduce drugs that are on the market, after which drugs that are in clinical or preclinical stages of development will be introduced. Furthermore, obese animal models that are now available will be introduced in the last section.

Keywords: Animal model, Anti-obesity drug, DGAT inhibitor, MGAT inhibitor, MTP inhibitor, Obesity.

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