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Gulf Today Report
Researchers have found that bimagrumab treatment is safe and effective for treating excessive obesity and metabolic disorders in adult patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Bimagrumab is an antibody that blocks activation in type II receptors and stimulates skeletal muscle growth according to IANS.
“These exciting results suggest that there may be a novel mechanism for weight loss with major loss of body fat and gain in muscle mass, as well as other metabolic benefits,” said Steve Heymsfield, researcher at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in the US.
For the study published in the JAMA Network Open Journal, a total of 75 patients with type 2 diabetes, a body mass index between 28 and 40 and glycated hemoglobin A1c levels between 6.5 and 10 percent were randomized for phase 2 -Study selected trial. A.
Patients were injected with either bimagrumab or placebo (a dextrose solution) every 4 weeks for 48 weeks. Both groups received diet and exercise advice.
At the end of the 48-week study, researchers found a nearly 21 percent decrease in body fat in the bimagrumab group, compared to 0.5 percent in the placebo group.
The results also showed that the bimagrumab group gained 3.6 percent of lean mass compared to a 0.8 percent loss in the placebo group.
The combined loss in total body fat and gain in muscle mass resulted in a net weight loss of 6.5 percent in patients who received bimagrumab, compared to a weight loss of 0.8 percent in their peers who received the placebo.
