Medical patch burns excess fat in a completely new method

Not only effective weight loss, new medical patches can also open safe and effective treatments for obesity and diseases related to metabolic disorders such as diabetes.

A small patch can melt fat anywhere on the body? This "utopian" is actually existing with medical patches developed by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and the University of North Carolina.

The sticker consists of many tiny needles with nanoparticles containing drugs at the tip of the needle. These nanoparticles can penetrate the skin to disperse throughout the body. Although human clinical trials have not yet been conducted, mouse tests have yielded very positive results with a 20% reduction in fat in the treated areas.

This result opens up the potential for the beauty industry, and paves the way for new treatments for obesity or diabetes.

The body's fat storage mechanism

The patch works based on the body's fat storage mechanism. Normally, humans possess two types of fat cells: white fat cells are fat stores, while brown fat cells convert fat into energy to maintain body temperature.

That's why babies have the highest percentage of brown fat, accounting for about 5% of their body weight. This amount of fat helps babies adjust their body temperature. However, this fat content will gradually decrease with age, especially in obese people with very low levels of brown fat (brown fat), and instead a large amount of white fat (fat white) exists everywhere in the body. White fat is used to store energy, but the sad thing is that they are not easily burned.

The patch consists of a lot of micro needles that can dissolve excess fat effectively.(Photo: Sciencealert).

In recent years, scientists have had a lot of research to balance these two types of fat. Rather, study the mechanism to convert energy fat (white fat) to energy-consuming fat (brown fat).

Some studies have had initial success in the process of activating this transition. However, there are still many health-related issues.

"Although there are a number of clinically tested methods capable of promoting brown fat, these methods must use oral medication," said pathologist Li Qiang of Columbia University. or injection.

This can cause side effects such as nausea, weight gain and even fractures. Our new patch will minimize these unwanted effects by bringing the drug directly into adipose tissue. "

This can be done through a system of micro needles. They only focus on white fat areas without affecting the surrounding parts.

Medical patches can "dye brown" white fat

The researchers used a white fat "brown dye" consisting of two different ingredients, including rosiglitazone and a chemical called CL316243 - which was previously found in white fat in mouse.

First, these two drugs are encased in nanoparticles. Each type has a diameter of about 250 nanometers (nm). This is a very small size (a human hair has a width of about 100,000 nm).

These nanoparticles are then evenly spread out in the patch, and when tiny needles pass through the skin, drug-containing nanoparticles are directly inserted into adipose tissue and dissolve fat in high-fat areas. White.

"Nanoparticles are designed to hold the drug most effectively and then gradually release the drug into nearby tissues. First, they focus on certain areas and not spread throughout the body. quickly, " explained biomedical engineer Zhen Gu, a member of the research team.

In the experiment, the researchers pasted 2 patches on obese mice every three days for 4 weeks. A patch containing "brown-dyed" medicine and the other patch contains hollow nanoparticles

The results showed that, compared to a patch containing hollow nanoparticles, patches containing rosiglitazone and CL316243 reduced 20 percent of white fat in mice. The experiment also showed that mice glued with pills containing blood glucose levels were lower than the rest of the mice.

In sick mice, this treatment also offers a number of benefits such as helping the body consume oxygen more effectively than untreated mice.

Although there is no guarantee for successful human trials, this is still a promising step as scientists have discovered a mechanism to control the production of brown and colored fats. white in humans.

The team is currently working on more studies to improve the effectiveness of the drug to go beyond the 20% impression they have achieved.

"Many people will surely be happy to know that we can provide a non-invasive method to absorb excess fat on the body. But more importantly, our patch can provide Safe and effective treatments for obesity and diseases related to metabolic disorders such as diabetes , " Qiang said.

Although currently, the research team has not planned to put the patch on the market because more research is needed to check the safety of the device. And until that day, there is another safe weight loss method. That is using fish oil.

According to research published by Japanese scientists in 2015, fish oil may also help the animal body transfer fat cells from its reserve form to a form that can effectively burn.