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Nanomedicine for obesity treatment

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Abstract

Obesity, as a chronic condition, has been a serious public health issue over the last decades both in the affluent Western world and developing countries. As reported, the risk of several serious diseases increases with weight gain, including type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, cancer, and respiratory diseases. In addition to lifestyle modifications, pharmacotherapy has become an important strategy to control weight gain. However, most of the anti-obesity drugs often show poor outcome for weight-loss and cause severe adverse effects. This review surveys recent advances in nanomedicine as an emerging strategy for obesity treatment with an emphasis on the enhanced therapeutic efficiency and minimized side effects. The insights for future development are also discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the grant from Sloan Research Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Yuqi Zhang, Jicheng Yu & Zhen Gu

  2. Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery and Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA

    Yuqi Zhang, Jicheng Yu & Zhen Gu

  3. Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10032, USA

    Li Qiang

  4. Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA

    Zhen Gu

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Zhang, Y., Yu, J., Qiang, L. et al. Nanomedicine for obesity treatment. Sci. China Life Sci. 61, 373–379 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-017-9257-1

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