A recent study suggests that a special type of protein called PEPITEM could help protect us from diseases like type 2 diabetes and liver fat buildup. This was published in the scientific journal Clinical and Experimental Immunology on March 9.
Researchers wanted to see if a medicine called PEPITEM, which is released slowly over time, could stop or reverse the physical effects of eating too much unhealthy food. The results were surprising: taking this medicine improved the size of cells that produce insulin in the pancreas and lowered the amount of immune cells that had moved into different parts of the body.
Dr. Helen MCGettrick and Dr. Asif Iqbal, who work at the University of Birmingham, led a research team. They conducted the study and found a new type of medicine which can help with obesity-related conditions by stopping inflammation from occurring in other parts of our bodies. According to Dr. McGettrick, this medical advancement could be really helpful for people suffering from these issues.
In 2015, scientists in Birmingham made a discovery and called it PEPITEM. It is part of something called the adiponectin-PEPITEM pathway which affects how autoimmune and long-term inflammatory diseases develop.
Obesity can make your body unable to balance out sugar levels and cause something known as type 2 diabetes. This also opens the door for white blood cells to enter many places in your body including fat stored deep around organs like your liver or gut, as well as on a membrane that covers the gut.
Recent studies show that a process called adiponectin-PEPITEM is linked to obesity, inflammation it causes and changes in the pancreas that come before diabetes.
When mice ate a high-fat diet and were given PEPITEM, the insulin-producing cells in their pancreas became smaller and fewer white blood cells appeared in the fat around their tummies and bellies compared to control groups.
The researchers investigated whether PEPITEM can fix the damage done by obesity. They gave animals a high-fat diet and then gave them PEPITEM. The results were encouraging—PEPITEM may help stop and even reverse the bad effects of obesity on your body! But more research needs to be done before this medicine can be used by humans.
Professor Ed Rainger from Birmingham’s Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and his team found something called PEPITEM. They are very happy with the results they got, because it looks like PEPITEM can work on a lot of organs and help with diseases that are not only caused by the immune system.
A group of scientists recently published a study which suggests that a certain substance called ‘PEPITEM’ may help reduce the inflammation caused by obesity. This study has been published in Clinical and Experimental Immunology, on 9 March 2023 – so if you’re curious, you can go look it up. The authors behind this work are Laleh Pezhman, Sophie J Hopkin, Jenefa Begum, Silke Heising, Daniela Nasteska, Mussarat Wahid, G Ed Rainger, David J Hodson, Asif J Iqbal, Myriam Chimen and Helen M McGettrick. DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.1900213
The University of Birmingham Enterprise has created a new patent application that could help with the prevention or treatment of obesity-related issues, especially chronic low-grade inflammation and damage to cells in the pancreas.
