AUTHOR=Deng Zhi-Jun , Liu Ruo-Xuan , Li A-Rong , Guo Jie-Wen , Zeng Qing-Ping 

TITLE=How Do Structurally Distinct Compounds Exert Functionally Identical Effects in Combating Obesity?

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pharmacology

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2018.00069

DOI=10.3389/fphar.2018.00069

ISSN=1663-9812

ABSTRACT=<p>Although the concept of inflammatory obesity remains to be widely accepted, a plethora of antibiotics, anti-inflammatory agents, mitochondrial uncouplers, and other structurally distinct compounds with unknown mechanisms have been demonstrated to exert functionally identical effects on weight reduction. Here we summarize a universal mechanism in which weight loss is modulated by mitochondrial biogenesis, which is correlated with conversion from the mitochondria-insufficient white adipose tissue to the mitochondria-abundant brown adipose tissue. This mechanistic description of inflammatory obesity may prove useful in the future for guiding pathology-based drug discovery for weight reduction.</p>