Adipotide

Six publications are cited, from 2004 to 2022, and only two test adipotide or the targeting approach behind it: a 2004 study of targeted ablation of white fat and a 2011 study in obese monkeys. A 2017 study examined prohibitin, the protein the approach relies on, in human ovarian tumours. The other three, from 2011 to 2022, apply fat-targeted delivery to different agents: haem oxygenase-1 induction by nanoparticles, a comparison of nanoparticles with bioconjugates, and an 11β-HSD1 inhibitor in diet-induced obese mice.

The 2004 study reported that targeted ablation led to resorption of established white fat and normalised metabolism in obese animals, with no adverse effects detected; its authors noted that prohibitin is also found in the vasculature of human white fat. In the 2011 study, obese monkeys lost body weight and showed lower insulin resistance, and at the doses the authors judged optimal, animals from three species showed predictable, reversible changes in kidney proximal tubule function. The ovarian study found raised prohibitin 1 expression in epithelial tumours and linked it to luteinisation and TGF-β signalling. Among the delivery studies, the targeted 11β-HSD1 inhibitor slowed body-weight gain in mice, with better glucose tolerance and higher muscle UCP-2 mRNA but no change in adipocyte size; the haem oxygenase-1 nanoparticles shifted inflammatory macrophage phenotypes and lowered inflammation; and the comparison study reported that nanoparticle delivery into adipose endothelial cells was enhanced by multivalent targeting and escape from endosomes.

For adipotide itself the evidence is thin and dated: two animal studies, the later from 2011, and no human data. The kidney tubule changes in monkeys sit alongside the 2004 report of no detected adverse effects, so the safety picture is incomplete. The prohibitin and delivery studies describe the targeting idea or other compounds, and cannot be read as evidence about adipotide.