A MAGIC bullet that destroys the blood vessels that feed fat tissue could be just what obese people desperate to lose weight have been praying for. When the drug was given to overweight mice, they lost nearly a third of their body weight in a month.
Cancer drugs designed to inhibit blood vessel growth in tumours have already been shown to reduce fat levels in obese mice (
By screening millions of peptides, they found one that binds to a membrane protein found only in the blood vessels supplying white fat. They then hooked this up to another peptide that triggers cell suicide.
When mice ...
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