The World Health Organization has declared obesity a disease. Now scientists have developed such genetically designed fat cells that will reach our body with the help of therapy and fight obesity.
Obesity is one of our biggest health challenges today. In this way, there are different types of fat cells in our body. These cells are more desirable than other cells of the body. White Fat Cells are actually responsible for the release and throttle of the body in our body whereas the more beneficial Brown Fat Cells melt easily to give energy to the body. But now scientists have developed a new gene-editing technique that converts white fat cells into brown fat cells. In the coming time, scientists will transplant these cells into our body as a treatment for obesity and diabetes.
Imitation of exercise effect
The study’s senior author Yu-Hua Tseng says that these white cells responsible for excess body fat have been genetically altered. Now their ability to convert into easily melting brown fat cells has been increased. These new gene-editing techniques mimic the effect the body has on exercise. Scientists say that the nano parts of this fat are injected directly into the body through injected white fat cells and gene therapy that immediately starts the process of converting fat into brown cells.
Research on white cells done earlier
One of the most interesting examples of this technique is the 2018 study in which a team of Columbia University during clinical trials showed how these white fat cells can be removed from the body and they can easily be added to the body. Brown fat can turn into cells to remove fat. Scientists at the Joslin Diabetes Center have also taken the help of ‘CRISPR’, a state-of-the-art technique of gene-editing, in this new research so that they can make changes in cells in the early developmental stage of white cells. During the research, these white fat cells were replaced in their earliest times and with the help of the gene-editing tool Crisper, scientists did this to increase the activation of UCP1 (UCP1) present in the cell. The team called this effect ‘HUMBLE cells, human brown-like’ fat cells.
Many diseases will be diagnosed
Yu-Hua Tseng says that while this technique may prove to be a promising technique for the treatment of obesity, it can also become an effective alternative to other life-threatening diseases. It also has the ability to treat type 2 diabetes, mainly due to obesity. The team found in the experiment that this technique also increases the ability to clear glucose from blood with type 2 diabetes. Now the team is working on using this new treatment in treatment practically.
Tseng says that using cell or gene therapy-based technology to treat obesity and type 2 diabetes is still like science fiction. But technologies such as crisper will help us improve metabolism, excess body weight, quality of life, diagnosis of fatal diseases such as obesity and diabetes. The research was published in the journal ‘Science Translational Medicine’.
