Umberto Cornelli
Loyola University School of Medicine, United States
Title: Polyglucosamine in the treatment of overweight and obesity
Biography
Biography: Umberto Cornelli
Abstract
Overweight and obesity are one of the major public health challenges of the 21st century and the capacity to face the problem using non-prescription medicine to support weight loss has been frequently criticized because of scarcity of preclinical data on body weight reduction and the poor clinical trials available. Polyglucosamine ( PG L112) is a LMWC (low molecular weight chitosan) that belongs to the category of the medical devices. It has been tested for the chemico-physical activity showing to be one of the best fat binder available [Froese WM, Ludlow ME. Food Nutr Sci 2014; 5: 1637-1643]. In particular previous studies documented that the product has very high affinity for oxidized lipids, which are known to be one of the main causes of gastrointestinal oxidative stress [Cornelli U et al. Phys Reg Med 2006; 1: 25-29]. Pharmacological studies have clarified its mechanism of action in modifying the microbiota and increasing the glucose elimination in feces [Bondiolotti G e al. Europ J Pharmac 2007; 567:155-158, Bondiolotti et al. Food Chem 2011;124 :978-982]. Double blind studies in humans comparing PG L112 Vs placebo have shown that the product in combination with a diet is more effective than the combination of diet +placebo [Cornelli U et al. Minerva Cardioang 2008;56:71-78, Pokhis K et al. BMC Obesity 2015;2: 25]. Similarly, double blind studies in obese subjects comparing the product Vs Orlistat confirmed the significant superiority of PG L112 in the body weight reduction with an irrelevant incidence of side effects [Stoll M et al BMC Obesity 2015 in press].
