Liraglutide, a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes, manages to reduce body weight and, therefore, is also used today against obesity. This effect is possible by increasing caloric expenditure and can be independent of intake. This is the important discovery that a group from the Centre for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases (CIMUS) of the University of Santiago de Compostela and the CIBER on Obesity and Nutrition published in 2014 in the prestigious journal Diabetes and which now receives the recognition of the Dr. Antoni Esteve Foundation Research Award, endowed with 18,000 euros. The international tribunal that awards this award has considered the study as the best article in pharmacological research published by a Spanish author in the last three years.
The Dr. Antoni Esteve Foundation presented its fifteenth Research Award on July 4, 2017 to the Center for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases (CIMUS) of the University of Santiago de Compostela. Daniel Beiroa, first author of the award-winning article, and Rubén Nogueiras, director of the research, collected the award.
On the one hand, the work managed to demonstrate in rodents how liraglutide, better known as Victoza by its trade name, acts in the brain and how it activates a mechanism to burn fat and increase energy expenditure without affecting food intake.
On the other hand, the research also carried out an exhaustive follow-up of fifteen patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes, periodically monitoring weight, diet, insulin, glucose and other indicators. After one year of treatment, the patients showed a higher energy expenditure and managed to lose 5% of fat, especially relevant results, since fat reduction contributes to improving their clinical profile.
In this way, the medication taken by obese patients and patients with type 2 diabetes since 2009 not only regulates glucose imbalance but also slims down without the need to alter eating habits or perform physical exercise.
The award-winning article, GLP-1 agonism stimulates brown adipose tissue thermogenesis and browning through hypothalamic AMPK, is published in the journal Diabetes, one of the most prestigious in the area of endocrinology and diabetes. According to the Web of Science, it has received more than 85 citations in the last two years and more than 110 in Google Scholar.
This is the fifteenth edition of the award, which this year is awarded to the best work in pharmacology published by a Spanish author in the last three years in any of its aspects (design, synthesis, galenic development, clinical or laboratory evaluation, use, etc.). The 50 articles that have been sent throughout this call have been evaluated by an international tribunal.
The Evaluation Committee of the Dr. Antoni Esteve Foundation Research Award has wanted to recognize with two honorable mentions the following two articles presented in the fifteenth edition of the award:
- Neuroendothelial NMDA receptors as therapeutic targets in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Brain (2016) 139 (9): 2406-2419.
- Chromenopyrazole, a Versatile Cannabinoid Scaffold with in Vivo Activity in a Model of Multiple Sclerosis. J. Med. Chem. 2016, 59, 6753−6771.
KEYWORDS | Basic pharmacology, clinical pharmacology, research award