Columbia Technology Ventures

Satiety-promoting hormone therapy for the treatment of metabolic diseases including type 2 diabetes mellitus, NAFLD, NASH, and obesity

This technology describes a method to treat metabolic diseases using a natural human peptide hormone that reduces both food consumption and the uptake of fatty acids into the liver.

Unmet Need: Targeted therapeutic to reduce food intake and reverse the metabolic consequences of type 2 diabetes mellitus, NAFLD, and NASH

Obesity and related co-morbidities including type 2 diabetes mellitus, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) pose a significant health burden worldwide. Weight loss approaches such as diet and lifestyle changes and bariatric surgery show limited usefulness and frequently result in post-treatment weight regain. Further, post-operative patients often maintain weight gain-promoting hormonal patterns and fat metabolism that contribute to increased appetite, insulin insensitivity, NAFLD, and NASH. In the last decade, the incidences of NAFLD and NASH have reached epidemic proportions. At present, there are no approved drugs for the treatment of NAFLD or NASH.

The Technology: Natural hormone therapy to promote satiety and reduce obesity

This technology uses a human peptide hormone, spexin, to treat obesity and related metabolic disorders. Spexin is a naturally produced satiety factor that is severely under-expressed in the subcutaneous and omental fat depots of obese people. Administration of this peptide to obese patients can reduce food craving and caloric intake and also inhibit fatty acid uptake into adipocytes and hepatocytes. Restoring the balance of satiety via spexin therapy may result in improved fat metabolism that reduces the incidence of obesity-related comorbidities such as NAFLD and NASH.

This technology has been validated in animal models of obesity, NAFLD and NASH, and also in tissue samples from obese humans.

Applications:

  • Treatment of metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, NAFLD, NASH, obesity-related cardiomyopathy, and other obesity-associated disorders
  • Treatment of obesity
  • Appetite reduction and weight control
  • An alternative treatment and/or complement to obesity surgery
  • Detection and classification of obesity-related disorders based on mRNA or protein expression profiling

Advantages:

  • Natural peptide hormone with a unique mechanism of action (binding to GAL-R2 and GAL-R3)
  • Reduces food consumption by inducing satiety
  • Successfully reduces fat content in the liver by reducing food intake and inhibiting fatty acid uptake by adipocytes and hepatocytes
  • May obviate the need for weight control surgery
  • Can be combined with other anti-obesity treatments

Lead Inventor:

Paul D. Berk, M.D.

Patent Information:

Patent Status

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