Obesity prevented in mice treated with gene-disabling nanoparticles

By disabling a gene in specific mouse cells, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have prevented mice from becoming obese, even after the animals had been fed a high-fat diet. In one set of experiments, the research team deleted the ASXL2 gene in the macrophages of obese mice, and in a second set of experiments, they injected the animals with nanoparticles that interfered with the activity of the ASXL2 gene. In both cases, the researchers found that despite high-fat diets, the treated animals burned 45% more calories than their obese littermates.