Can fireflies treat obesity and diabetes?

Rédoane Daoudi (1)

1 UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie

The treatment of obesity and diabetes remains a challenge and the biological mechanisms of these diseases are still not fully understood. Diabetes and obesity are associated with increased risk of the development of cardiovascular complications and there is an urgent need to find novel therapeutic approaches for treating obesity and diabetes. Currently there are several approaches to treat these diseases. Among them chemical uncouplers could be used as an effective treatment for obesity but the dangerous side effects of these compounds has limited their use in vivo. Here we propose a novel theoretical model based on the mechanism of action of chemical uncouplers: the thermogenin-like system (TLS). The TLS may be used in vivo to reproduce the mechanism of action of chemical uncouplers but without their dangerous side effects.

Mots clés: thermogenesis; uncoupling; uncouplers; weight loss; obesity; diabetes; glucose uptake; mice; in vivo; lipolysis; luciferase

Domaines: Organisation et fonctions cellulaires [q-bio.SC]

Rédoane Daoudi. Can fireflies treat obesity and diabetes?. 2018. ⟨hal-01736930⟩