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Is gene therapy the solution we’ve been looking for?

Is gene therapy the solution we've been looking for? answer, gene therapy Food and Beverage Business

Obesity and metabolic disorders, such as type 2 diabetes, pose significant public health concerns. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), almost one in four people are obese, and over the next three decades, obesity-related diseases are expected to decrease life expectancy by nearly three years. However, researchers have found that conventional methods to tackle obesity are suffering from long-term inefficiency.

While dietary and lifestyle approaches are essential, often alternative methods are necessary, according to Laura Herrero, associate professor at the University of Barcelona’s Institute of Biomedicine. She adds, “Current therapies for obesity include pharmacologic and bariatric surgery approaches. However, both of them have limited long-term efficiency.”

Herrero and a scientific team from the University of Barcelona and public research consortium CIBERobn have designed a different approach to combat obesity and diabetes, which has been trialled in mice. They have used ex vivo gene therapy to express a protein involved in fat oxidation, creating cells with enhanced fat burning power. This gene therapy approach is thought to be the first to implant cells that express the CPT1AM protein, an enzyme located in the mitochondria that plays a crucial role in many metabolic diseases, such as obesity.

The researchers found that the implantation of adipocytes expressing the mitochondrial enzyme CPT1AM helped reduce obesity and glucose tolerance in mice. They concluded that the results support the future clinical use of this ex vivo gene therapy approach as a new strategy to reduce obesity and cholesterol rates in the population.

Herrero explains, “In a potential future translation of this approach from mice to humans, several points should be considered and optimized, such as the isolation step, viability, and functionality of the implant in a long-term study, and maintaining improvement in the obese phenotype.”

Of course, such therapies do not lessen the importance of lifestyle measures. Living a healthy lifestyle is crucial not only for obesity but also for many other metabolic diseases. Therefore, policymakers and the European Commission are intervening to encourage lifestyle changes where necessary, linking such changes to environmental benefits. The Commission wants to empower consumers to make informed, healthy, and sustainable food choices, and increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables while reducing the intake of red and processed meat. It is also proposed to have mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling and tax incentives to encourage consumers to choose sustainable and healthy diets.

Overall, the study highlights potential new strategies to tackle obesity and metabolic diseases, and policymakers are taking steps towards creating a healthier environment by focusing on lifestyle measures and promoting sustainable and healthy food choices.

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