Tools for Obesity and Diabetes Research Should Be Useful for the Metabolic Syndrome, Too

One way to find out what's hot in biomedical research is to look at the latest brochures from suppliers of biochemicals and biomedical research tools.

Last June, for example, Sigma-RBI sent out its latest brochure, which overviews obesity and diabetes—two of the most talked about medical conditions in the U.S. in the past few months. SigmaRBI is the division of Sigma-Aldrich that specializes in products for cell signaling and neuroscience research.

Given the close links between obesity, diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome, it is very likely that the products used for obesity and diabetes research are also being used to understand the metabolic syndrome, says Keith J. Watling, director of cell signaling and drug discovery research products at Sigma-RBI.

Drug discovery for diabetes and obesity is likely to overlap with drug discovery for the metabolic syndrome in three major ways. First, some of the metabolic pathways that are being targeted for drug development—insulin signaling, for example—are common to the three.

"Insulin is intimately involved in food intake and processing; there's an automatic overlap" among obesity, diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome, notes Julie L. Coughlan, product manager for Sigma-RBl's cell signaling initiative. 

Second, drugs targeting one condition are likely to have an effect on the others, and drug developers must take those side effects into consideration. For example, some antidiabetes drugs on the market induce weight gain, explains Mona M. Scrofano, a business development specialist at Sigma-RBI. "Ideally, when a company is designing a drug to fight diabetes, they probably have the obesity side on their mind as well." 

And third, individuals with one condition are likely to have, or to develop, the others as well.