Researchers have invented the world’s first anti-obesity vaccine that uses the immune system to fight weight gain. In mice study a single jab of the obesity vaccine has lost ten percent of body weight just after four days. Dr Keith Haffer from Braasch Biotech LLC, South Dakota, developed the vaccines in two versions JH17 and JH18.
The vaccines were derived from a peptide hormone somatostatin. Somatostatin, inhabits the activity of growth hormone and IGH-1 (insulin-like growth factor), both increase metabolism and result in weight loss. Dr Keith and colleagues tested the vaccines in diet-induced obese mice and a control group of mice which were administered saline jabs.
Mice of both groups had been fed a high fat diet eight weeks prior the study and continued to feed the same diet for next six-weeks of the study. The mice were administered two times, first the start of the study then a booster jab on twenty-second day.
Four days after the first jab of tailored somatostatin, mice in vaccinated group had ten percent drop in body weight, while mice in control group did not show any drop in body weight. After completing six weeks study findings showed that both vaccines work by fooling the body’s immune system into making antibodies against a hormone called somatostatin and significantly reduced body weight.
Lead author Dr Keith, stated this study demonstrates the possibility of treating obesity with vaccination. Although further studies are necessary to discover the long term implications of these vaccines, treatment of human obesity with vaccination would provide physicians with a drug- and surgical- free option against the weigh. The study was published in the Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology.