Xenical Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Xenical, including details on orlistat, side-effects, obesity, weight loss, dieting.

Therapeutic potential of lipase inhibitor orlistat in Alzheimer's disease.

Du J, Wang Z

Protein Science Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education, Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China.

Emerging evidences indicate that elevated cholesterol and triglyceride levels precede Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. High caloric intake based on saturated fat raises hyperlipidaemia and also promotes AD pathology. As a result, strategy that limits the absorption of dietary fat and attenuates hyperlipidemia could be a useful medication for protective treatment of AD. As an active site-directed inhibitor of digestive lipases, orlistat effectively reduces dietary fat absorption and decreases total cholesterol and triglyceride levels in plasma. Orlistat also potently inhibits lipoprotein lipase, monoacylglycerol lipase and diacylglycerol lipase, which are also involved in AD causation. Taken together, orlistat inhibits lipases activities, thereby reduces dietary fat intake and ameliorates hyperlipidemia, which indicates a therapeutic potential of orlistat in protecting against AD pathology.

Published 9 June 2009 in Med Hypotheses.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

Articles on Xenical published 9 June 2009:

The effects of diet and orlistat on body weight and lipid profiles in high risk Chinese patients with coronary artery disease, obesity and hypercholesterolemia.   Ir J Med Sci, 178(2): 173-8.

BACKGROUND: Orlistat is a gastrointestinal lipase inhibitor approved for use in obesity. So far, no evidence has been reported on the use of orlistat in obese patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). AIM: To investigate the effect of orlistat on body weight and lipid profiles in obese patients with CAD and hypercholesterolemia. METHODS: Thirty non-diabetic patients with CAD, body mass index (BMI) > or = 25 kg/m(2) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) > or = 2.6 and < 4.1 ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Xenical published 5 June 2009:

Trends in and Patterns of Obesity Reduction Medication Use in an Insured Cohort.   Obesity (Silver Spring).

Several prescription medications are approved to treat obesity, yet little is known about their use in the United States. Our objective was to describe recent trends and patterns of obesity reduction medication use in an insured US population. From among ~4.2 million persons enrolled in two Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, we obtained all medical and pharmacy claims for 86,804 persons who took an obesity reduction medication anytime during 2002-2005. Overall, obesity reduction medication use ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Xenical published 26 May 2009:

Inhibition of fatty acid synthase by orlistat accelerates gastric tumor cell apoptosis in culture and increases survival rates in gastric tumor bearing mice in vivo.   Lipids, 44(6): 489-98.

Orlistat, an anti-obesity drug, is a potent inhibitor of fatty acid synthase (FAS) and tumor cell viability. It can also induce apoptotic cancer cell death. We examined the effects of Orlistat on cultured NUGC-3 gastric cancer cells. We identified that inhibition of FAS via Orlistat exposure results in rapid cellular damage preceded by a direct but short-lived autophagic response. The Orlistat induced damage can be reversed through the addition of lipid containing media in a process that ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Xenical published 22 May 2009:

Weight Loss, HbA(1c) Reduction, and Tolerability of Cetilistat in a Randomized, Placebo-controlled Phase 2 Trial in Obese Diabetics: Comparison With Orlistat (Xenical).   Obesity (Silver Spring).

The objective of this multicenter, randomized, double-blind study was to determine the efficacy and safety of cetilistat and orlistat relative to placebo in obese patients with type 2 diabetes, on metformin. Following a 2-week run-in, patients were randomized to placebo, cetilistat (40, 80, or 120 mg three times daily), or orlistat 120 mg t.i.d., for 12 weeks. The primary endpoint was absolute change in body weight from baseline. Secondary endpoints included other measures of obesity and ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Discontinuation due to adverse events in randomized trials of orlistat, sibutramine and rimonabant: a meta-analysis.   Obes Rev.

Summary The objective of this article was to estimate the risk of discontinuation due to adverse events in trials of orlistat, sibutramine and rimonabant. Medline, EMBASE, the Cochrane controlled trials register and reference lists of identified articles were searched from 1990 to May 2008. All randomized placebo-controlled trials of 12-24 months of duration on adults using licensed doses were included. Studies/study arms were excluded if they evaluated weight maintenance after weight loss. ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Xenical published 14 May 2009:

Attrition from randomized controlled trials of pharmacological weight loss agents: a systematic review and analysis.   Obes Rev, 10(3): 333-41.

Clinical trials of obesity treatments have been limited by substantial dropout. Participant-level variables do not reliably predict attrition, and study-level variables have not yet been examined. We searched MEDLINE and identified 24 large randomized controlled trials of weight loss medications. These trials were comprised of 23 placebo and 32 drug groups. Two authors independently extracted the following for each treatment group: (i) treatment received; (ii) design characteristics (inclusion ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Xenical published 5 May 2009:

Cardiovascular and psychiatric risk profile and patterns of use in patients starting anti-obesity drugs.   Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf.

PURPOSE: Real-life experience with anti-obesity drugs has shown that psychiatric and cardiovascular diseases may be reported as adverse drug reactions. For adequate risk assessment of these drugs knowledge on baseline risks of patients starting anti-obesity drugs and insight in patterns of use is needed. The aim was to assess whether baseline characteristics of patients starting anti-obesity drugs differ from those not being prescribed these drugs, and to study patterns of anti-obesity drug ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Xenical published 4 May 2009:

Long-term weight loss decreases the nontraditional cardiovascular risk factors interleukin-18 and matrix metalloproteinase-9 in obese subjects.   Metabolism.

The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of long-term (3.2 years) weight loss on serum levels of the nontraditional cardiovascular risk factors interleukin (IL)-18 and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9. Moreover, we wanted to assess the significance of the magnitude of the weight loss and evaluate the potential effects of 36 months of treatment with the lipase inhibitor orlistat on these parameters. Sixty-eight abdominally obese subjects completed 8 weeks of very low energy diet ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

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