Eye drug opens up new perspectives on obesity

(Image: Pixabay CC0) A research team from Université Laval demonstrates how this drug acts on adipose tissue The ways of science are sometimes impenetrable, they say. Bimatoprost, a drug used to relieve ocular hypertension and give fuller eyelashes, is now helping to open up new horizons in the understanding and treatment of obesity. A team led by Cristoforo Silvestri , a professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval, has made a new breakthrough in this area. Bimatoprost, marketed under the brand name Lumigan, was approved in the U.S. in 2001 for the treatment of ocular hypertension, a frequent problem in glaucoma sufferers. One of the side effects of this drug is that it induces a reduction in the size of the fat pads that surround the eyeball. It was this side effect that sparked Silvestri's interest in bimatoprost and its natural body-produced analogue, prostaglandin F2? ethanolamide (PGF2?EA), over 10 years ago. A recent study he has just published in the Journal of Lipid Research with Besma Boubertakh, Olivier Courtemanche, David Marsolais and Vincenzo Di Marzo describes the mode of action of these molecules on certain adipose tissue cells.