Imagine this: you seemingly can't get enough food, thus your weight spirals out of control. What if chewing a piece of gum could solve your problems?

Your question may not sound as far-fetched as you think, thanks to work by London scientists.

Researchers at London’s Imperial College are experimenting with a drug that may suppress your appetite and give doctors another tool in their war against obesity. Present work focuses on how to put the drug in a special type of chewing gum or a nasal spray until an injectable form becomes available.

“We have got a (obesity) problem and we don’t know what to do about it,” lead researcher Dr. Steve Bloom told the BBC. “We hit on the idea of a chewing gum because obese people like chewing.”

Focusing on a hormone

Despite the drug's potential, Bloom and other observers said the best way to drop the excess weight is through healthy eating and exercise. They added that the drug, whether through an injectible form or chewing gum, is not meant to be a quick fix to a person's weight problem.

Bloom’s research pinpoints the hormone pancreatic polypeptide, which your body produces after every meal to keep your eating under control.

He said he turned to something the body produces naturally to regulate appetite rather than a drug that could cause side effects, such as the current crop of anti-obesity prescription medicines.
Being overweight generally reduces the amount of the hormone. And without proper levels of the hormone, your appetite increases, you cannot resist food, and you gain weight, he said.

Early success

There are obstacles, however, that Bloom and his team are trying to overcome.

"The trouble with pancreatic polypeptide is that it would need to be injected daily and cannot be taken as a pill," said Dr. Caroline Small, who is helping with the research. "Naturally, this is not very convenient, so we need to develop an injectable form that is longer lasting and can be administered on a weekly basis to make it more practical."

Early tests of the drug shows that moderate doses of the hormone can cut the amount of food eaten by healthy people by up to 20 percent, Bloom said.

To carry on the work,  Bloom has received nearly $4 million from the Wellcome Trust, a British private funding institution.

“There is a clear need to develop a treatment to tackle the (obesity) problem,” said Dr. Ted Bianco, a trust technology director. "Yet this need for effective anti-obesity therapies is currently unmet. We believe that Professor Bloom's research holds great promise and, with our support, can be translated into tangible benefits to health.”

Source: Imperial College, London; Wellcome Trust

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