New patch aims to turn energy-storing fats into energy-burning fats

A new approach to reducing bulging tummy fats has shown promise in laboratory trials. It combines a new way to deliver drugs, via a micro-needle patch, with drugs that are known to turn energy-storing white fat into energy-burning brown fat.

The innovative approach was developed by scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and reduced weight gain in mice on a high fat diet and their fat mass by more than 30 per cent over four weeks.

The skin patch contains hundreds of micro-needles, each thinner than a human hair, which are loaded with the drug Beta-3 adrenergic receptor agonist or another drug called thyroid hormone T3 triiodothyronine. The findings were recently published in the journal Small Methods.