Testing weight- loss pills

• By CHRIS GAUTREAU
• Advocate business writer
• Published: May 21, 2008 - Page: 1D - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Can weight loss really be as simple as swallowing a pill? Pennington Biomedical Research Center hopes to determine scientifically if that’s possible.

While tens of millions of Americans take dietary supplements that claim to burn fat naturally, researchers say there is a dearth of clinical testing on the subject.

With the backing of a one-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, Pennington and Zen-Bio Inc., a small, private firm in North Carolina’s Research Park Triangle, will start putting botanical compounds through the rigors of laboratory tests.

In the project’s initial phase, scientists will expose human fat cells and adult stem cells to different compounds, watching for any changes in the number of cells.

“We think we will find something,” Jeffery Gimble, a physician and Pennington researcher who will help oversee the project, said Tuesday. “Now, whether it will eventually become a drug, it’s too early to say.”

There is at least some knowledge about the fat-burning abilities of certain natural compounds, Gimble said. The project will focus, for example, on herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat diabetes.

But researchers hope to isolate the particular chemicals and reproduce them synthetically.

Dr. Ben Buehrer of Zen-Bio said the ultimate goal is developing drugs that can treat obesity and related health problems such as diabetes and heart disease.

There’s also a consumer safety angle. Buehrer said that solid, scientific data will help determine correct dosages.

“Clearly, if we can show that these extracts have efficacy or activity that we’re looking for, we’re going to be very careful to look at whether they’re safe,” Buehrer said.

The NIH initially began funding the research project in 2005, naming Pennington as one of five U.S. facilities that are taking part.

Pennington has worked with Zen-Bio on other research projects and Gimble is a former Zen-Bio employee.

In the current phase, one of Pennington’s chief roles will be providing compound samples through its Botanical Research Center formed by Dr. William Cefalu in 2005 in conjunction with Rutgers University in New Jersey.