Addiction treatment proves successful in animal weight loss study

August 21, 2008

Genetically bred 'fat rats' experience dramatic weight loss, reduced food intake after being given vigabatrin

UPTON, NY -- Vigabatrin, a medication proposed as a potential treatment for drug addiction by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, also leads to rapid weight loss and reduced food intake according to a new animal study from the same research group. The study will be published online August 20, 2008, by the journal Synapse. Vigabatrin is currently undergoing U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved Phase II clinical trials against cocaine and methamphetamine addiction across the U.S.

In the current study, animals genetically bred to be obese experienced a loss of up to 19 percent of their total weight while non-obese animals lost 12 to 20 percent following short-term vigabatrin administration.

"Our results appear to demonstrate that vigabatrin induced satiety in these animals," said Amy DeMarco, who led the study, working in the laboratory of Brookhaven Lab senior scientist Stephen Dewey. Dewey first identified vigabatrin as a potential addiction treatment and has conducted more than 20 years of preclinical research with this promising medication.

Earlier studies at Brookhaven Lab found a strong connection between obesity and addiction, including similar changes in the brains of the obese and those addicted to drugs like cocaine. Based on these connections, Dewey hypothesized that vigabatrin would quench food cravings in the lab rats.

"Given the growing obesity epidemic, we felt that examining vigabatrin's therapeutic efficacy for obesity was particularly relevant," Dewey said. A total of 50 adolescent and adult animals, both genetically bred "fat" and normal-weight animals, were assigned to either a control group or groups that received vigabatrin at various dose levels and were monitored for up to 40 days. The controls received daily salt water (saline) injections, while those in the study groups received up to 300 milligrams (mg) of vigabatrin a day. All animals received injections for two 7-13-day periods, with breaks in between.

At the end of the 40-day period, all animals receiving vigabatrin weighed significantly less than the controls. The obese animals receiving the 300mg dose weighed far less and consumed less food than the 150 and 75mg groups. The obese animals receiving vigabatrin lost an average of 19 percent of their initial weight, while non-obese animals lost between 12 and 20 percent of their weight.

"The fact that these results occurred in genetically obese animals offers hope that this drug could potentially treat severe obesity," said Dewey. "This would appear to be true even if the obesity results from binge eating, as this disorder is characterized by eating patterns that are similar to drug-taking patterns in those with cocaine dependency."

DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory

---

---

	Vigabatrin.: An article from: Pediatric Nursing by Jenny Calli (Author), Elizabeth Farrington (Author) This digital document is an article from Pediatric Nursing, published by Jannetti Publications, Inc. on July 1, 1998. The length of the article is 5164 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. From the supplier: Vigabatrin, a drug used to treat epilepsy in children, is a synthetic drug. It was designed to increase the neurotransmitter y-amino-butyric acid. The drug exhibits a favorable profile and has a few drug interactions because of its lack of protein binding. The assessment of adverse effects with antiepileptic drugs is difficult because effects can be due to epilepsy itself. Citation...
	Capillary electrophoresis analysis of gabapentin and vigabatrin in pharmaceutical preparations as ofloxacin derivatives [An article from: Analytica Chimica Acta] by F.M. Lin (Author), H.S. Kou (Author), S.M. Wu (Author), S.H. Chen (Author), H.L. Wu (Author) This digital document is a journal article from Analytica Chimica Acta, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. Description: Gabapentin (GBP) and vigabatrin (VGB) are widely used anticonvulsants. In structure, they are amino carboxylic compounds, which lack practical chromophoric groups for detection by absorption spectrophotometry. Derivatization of gabapentin and vigabatrin with chromophoric ofloxacin acyl chloride (OAC) was performed and the resulting OAC derivatives can be analyzed by simple capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) with UV detection (300nm). The detection limit (S/N = 3, injection 3s) of the method for the gabapentin...
	Vigabatrin ok for seizures, spasms.(NEWS FROM THE FDA): An article from: Family Practice News by Unavailable (Author) This digital document is an article from Family Practice News, published by International Medical News Group on September 15, 2009. The length of the article is 401 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. Citation Details Title: Vigabatrin ok for seizures, spasms.(NEWS FROM THE FDA) Author: Unavailable Publication: Family Practice News (Magazine/Journal) Date: September 15, 2009 Publisher: International Medical News Group Volume: 39 Issue: 16 Page: 4(1) Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage...
	Vigabatrin by Ronald Cohn Jesse Russell (Author) High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Vigabatrin is an antiepileptic drug that inhibits the catabolism of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) by irreversibly inhibiting GABA transaminase. It is an analog of GABA, but it is not a receptor agonist. It is sold under the brand name Sabril. This book was created using print-on-demand technology.
	Vigabatrin: Webster's Timeline History, 1986 - 2007 by Icon Group International (Author) Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Vigabatrin," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Vigabatrin in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Vigabatrin when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences...
	Vigabatrin: Pharmakologie - Wirksamkeit- Verträglichkeit (German Edition) by Günter Krämer (Editor), Dieter Schmidt (Editor) Vigabatrin steht in Deutschland seit Anfang 1992 zur Zusatzbehandlung unzureichend therapierbarer Epilepsien mit fokalen Anfällen zur Verfügung. Nach vielen Jahren ohne Zulassung neuer Antiepileptika wurde damit erstmals wieder eine Erweiterung der medikamentösen Behandlungsmöglichkeiten erreicht. Vigabatrin ist mit Ausnahme der Benzodiazepine das bislang einzige Antiepileptikum mit einem spezifischen Wirkungsmechanismus, der in einer Erhöhung der Konzentration von GABA als dem wichtigsten hemmenden Neurotransmitter im Gehirn besteht.
	Sabril: Vigabatrin by Medicine Group (UK) (Publisher)
	Vigabatrin by Book on Demand Pod (Publisher)
	Drugs approved in 2009.(DRUGS, PREGNANCY, AND LACTATION): An article from: Family Practice News by Gerald G. Briggs (Author) This digital document is an article from Family Practice News, published by International Medical News Group on June 1, 2010. The length of the article is 962 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. Citation Details Title: Drugs approved in 2009.(DRUGS, PREGNANCY, AND LACTATION) Author: Gerald G. Briggs Publication: Family Practice News (Magazine/Journal) Date: June 1, 2010 Publisher: International Medical News Group Volume: 40 Issue: 10 Page: 45(1) Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage...
	Handbook of Epilepsy Treatment by Simon D. Shorvon (Author) Make your way through the epilepsy mazeEpilepsy is a complex neurological condition. There are many modern treatment options, and treatment should nowadays be tailored to an individual patient. But identification of the best therapy can be a labyrinthine process.The Handbook of Epilepsy Treatment provides a practical pathfinder for treating epilepsy based on published evidence and the author’s 30 years of specialist clinical experience. Direct in style but comprehensive in content, with ample tables and summaries, the Handbook of Epilepsy Treatment covers:Treatment of the different forms and causes of epilepsyTreatment in the different commonly encountered clinical situationsTreatment in children, in adults, in the elderly, in women, in epilepsy syndromes and in those with special needs...