Obesity and Weight Management

Biography

Biography: Ritesh Kr. Baboota

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of obesity is becoming a global health concern. Weight gain is associated with several other complications such as hypertension, type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. To date there is no effective therapy for obesity so there is urgent need for developing strategies to tackle it. Currently, there is considerable interest in augmenting “brite” cell population in white adipose tissue (WAT) or targeting thermogenesis via increasing energy expenditure by brown adipose tissue (BAT). Also, the manipulation of gut microbiota by diet in reversing the development of obesity and its associated complications has been suggested. Recent researches showed the potential of natural-product based dietary interventions to counteract obesity. Capsaicin, a bioactive component of chili peppers, is an important nutraceutical that has enormous potential to prevent and treat obesity. Our recently published in-vitro (Baboota et al., 2014a) and in-vivo (Baboota et al., 2014b) studies have provided evidence for the novel anti-adipogenic and anti-obesity mechanism of obesity. In-vitro, capsaicin inhibited adipogenesis and induced brown-like phenotype in 3T3-L1 cells whereas in-vivo, oral capsaicin decreased adiposity via global nutrigenomic changes in different tissues. In this presentation we will be summarizing our research findings of capsaicin, which could represent a promising therapeutic approach.