Volume:1 April:4 Contemporary Advances in Anti-Obesic Drugs- Short Communication

Volume: 1 Issue: 1                                                                                                   April: 4

Contemporary Advances in Anti-Obesic Drugs- Short Communication

Rohit Gundamaraju^1*

¹ Department of Pharmacolgy ,  Malla Reddy Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences ,                  

              Maisammaguda ,Dhulapally(Post via Hakimpet) ,Secunderabad (500014)           

                                                                AP,India.

Recent advances in the understanding of energy balance control have resulted in the exploitation of a large number of new targets, some of which have yielded promising data in clinical trials for weight loss. A second major trend is derived from the hypothesis that improved weight loss efficacy over current therapy is more likely to emerge from treatments targeting multiple mechanisms of energy balance control. Many of these approaches also utilize advances in formulation technology to widen safety margins. Finally, the practicality of peptide therapies for obesity has become better validated in recent studies, and this may allow more rapid exploitation of novel targets, rather than awaiting the development of orally available small molecules. Despite the limitations of current drugs and their declining use in some jurisdiction, anti-obesity drugs still accounted for sales of nearly a half billion US dollars in the seven largest global markets during 2000. Since overall sales of anti-obesity drugs projected to at least triple by 2010, development of effective drugs has become a research priority and an area

of intense clinical interest.

The new anti-obesity drugs under clinical development include agents affecting peripheral and central mechanisms. In the first group, we can include gastrointestinal lipase inhibitor (cetilistat), amylin and leptin analogs, thermogenic agents, that is, selective β3 receptor agonists, agonist of the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) (Exendin-4, Liraglutide). In the second group, we can consider agents that modulate the central activity of neuropeptides influencing food intake and including antiepilepsy drugs (topiramate, zonisamide), noradrenaline and dopamine reuptake inhibitors (bupropion, tesofensine) that were studied in monotherapy or in combination (bupropion-naltrexone and phenterminetopiramate); human ciliary neurotrophic factor (axokine), human GH fragment (AOD9604, AOD9401), melanocortin receptor selective agonists (MC4R), melanin-concentrating hormone antagonists, serotoninergic drugs including selective 5-HT2C receptor agonists (lorcaserin), components of neuropeptide Y (NPY) signaling pathway (CAMKK2).