"The drawback to harnessing adrenergic receptors to make more brown adipocytes, as a lot of people are thinking about doing, is that it puts a lot of pressure on the cardiovascular system," he said. "However, the idea of having a drug that could selectively affect specific hypothalamic neurons that then control specific branches of the sympathetic nervous system suggests that one could avoid acting on unwanted cells but selectively on those able to burn calories such as brown adipocytes.

"We could control the remodeling of a particular fat depot into brown, which would then be more likely to cause weight loss without increasing the risk of cardiovascular problems," he said.

The next step, Dr. Coppari said, is to determine whether SIRT1 is mediating other signaling pathways in the brain that in addition to regulating body weight are key for normal glucose balance.

Other UT Southwestern researchers involved in the study were Dr. Giorgio Ramadori, lead author and postdoctoral researcher in internal medicine; Dr. Teppei Fujikawa, postdoctoral researcher in internal medicine; Drs. Makoto Fukuda and Claudia Vianna, instructors of internal medicine; Jason Anderson, student research assistant in internal medicine; and Dr. Mario Perello, former postdoctoral researcher in internal medicine.

Researchers from the University of Iowa, Harvard Medical School and Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital also contributed to the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association.

Source: UT Southwestern Medical Center