Sepa-Kishi DM, Wu MV, Uthayakumar A, Mohasses A, Ceddia RB. Anti-lipolytic and anti-lipogenic effects of the CPT-1b inhibitor oxfenicine in the white adipose tissue of rats. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 311: R779–R787, 2016.
Significance of the research: "Obesity is commonly thought of as a disease where there is an energy imbalance resulting in an excess accumulation of body fat. This excess fat can lead to the development of cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance and type II diabetes. As such, increasing energy expenditure to oxidize or burn fat is often prescribed as a treatment for obesity. However, contrary to this approach, it has actually been shown that treatment with drugs that inhibit fat oxidation leads to improvements in insulin sensitivity. While the whole body effects of these inhibitors are well documented, less is known about their effect on the adipose tissue, an organ responsible for storing and releasing fat that could be greatly affected by drugs that impair the ability of the organism to burn fat. In this study we demonstrated that treatment with oxfenicine, a drug that selectively inhibits fat oxidation in skeletal muscle and adipose tissues, improved insulin sensitivity and reduced the amount of fat stored in the adipose tissue. Our novel findings show that blocking the oxidation of fat profoundly affects metabolism of the adipose tissue, and opens up the possibility of using oxfenicine or other inhibitors of fat oxidation as therapies for obesity and type II diabetes."