BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Therapeutics

Endocrine / Metabolic

October 3, 2017 7:43 PM UTC

Mouse and rat studies suggest GDF15 could help treat obesity, and inhibiting its receptor GFRAL could help treat cachexia. In a mouse model of high-fat diet-induced obesity and a genetic rat model of obesity, GDF15 decreased food intake and body weight compared with vehicle. In mouse models of cisplatin-induced cachexia, systemic knockout of GFRAL increased body weight and fat mass compared with normal GFRAL expression. Next steps by NGM Biopharmaceuticals Inc. include preclinical testing of the anti-GFRAL antibody NGM120 for cachexia and, in collaboration with Merck & Co. Inc., preclinical testing of NGM386, an optimized variant of GDF15, for obesity...