A relatively obscure drug used to treat mouth sores has made
obese mice thin -- and the mice didn't have to eat less or
exercise more, according to a study at the University of
Michigan. Doctors at the university will begin studies in human
beings later this year. Hopes are high, even though many drugs
that work in mice do not work in humans. "It is a tour de force
and offers a new and potentially exciting opening for
developments of new anti-obesity drugs -- something which is
badly needed," says Dr. George Bray, chief of the Division of
Clinical Obesity and Metabolism at Pennington Biomedical
Research Center at Louisiana State University. In the study at
the University of Michigan, researchers gave mice a high-fat
diet, and they became obese. They then injected the animals with
a drug called amlexanox, which has been on the market for more
than 15 years to treat canker sores. The mice lost weight, even
though they kept eating the same number of calories. When they
were taken off the drug, the mice gained al