Drug treatment for obesity

DRUGS which mirror the effects of appetite-suppressing surgery may offer the ultimate solution to obesity, scientists said yesterday.

Researchers are trying to discover how obesity surgery alters hormones in the gut to reduce hunger.

The work could lead to drugs treatments that are as effective as surgical procedures in five to 10 years, say experts.

Today, surgery remains the only “proven way” to maintain weight loss in obese patients, according to Dr Carol Le Roux, from Imperial College London.

One of the two most common kinds of obesity operation involves tightening a “gastric band” round the entrance to the stomach. The other redirects food so that it by-passes the stomach and part of the intestine.

The operations mainly work not by physical effects but by changing the balance of hormones that cause people to feel hungry or full.

Trials show that obese patients who undergo surgery can lose 20%-25% in body weight over several years.

Speaking yesterday at the British Association Festival of Science at the University of Liverpool, Dr Le Roux said: “We hope to be able to understand the mechanisms of how the surgery works which would allow us to effectively ‘put it in a bottle’.

“Our aim for one day in the future would be to produce some sort of drug, which would have the same outcome as surgery, whilst avoiding the need to operate.