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Record W4408296982 · doi:10.3389/jpps.2025.14099

Editorial: Pharmacotherapy of energy metabolism in obesity

2025· editorial· en· W4408296982 on OpenAlexafffundvenue
John R. Ussher

Bibliographic record

VenueJournal of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences · 2025
Typeeditorial
Languageen
FieldMedicine
TopicDiet and metabolism studies
Canadian institutionsUniversity of Alberta
FundersCanada Research Chairs
KeywordsPharmacotherapyEnergy metabolismObesityMedicinePharmacologyInternal medicine

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

It is well established that body weight gain and increased adiposity during the progression of obesity increase one's risk for metabolic dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), type 2 diabetes (T2D), and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Furthermore, a plethora of evidence supports that obesity leads to several perturbations in energy metabolism, which are widely thought to contribute to the pathology of these obesity-associated cardiometabolic pathologies (1). Accordingly, researchers have invested significant effort towards understanding the molecular alterations that are responsible for these perturbations in energy metabolism, as they may represent novel drug discovery targets to treat MASLD, T2D, and CVD due to underlying obesity.With the increasing recognition that the adipose tissue itself is a complex endocrine organ that secretes several cytokines and adipokines that can influence metabolic homeostasis, understanding how intermittent fasting mediated weight loss impacts whole-body energy metabolism is an exciting area for potential drug discovery (2). Although not as prevalent as in rodents, there is also excitement on whether brown fat metabolism can be influenced in obese humans to promote weight loss (3). In addition, numerous metabolomics studies have demonstrated that increases in circulating branched-chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, valine) are positively associated with T2D and CVD (4). Whether targeting BCAA metabolism can reverse obesity-related cardiometabolic disease has engendered significant interest in the field, though which organ (i.e. skeletal muscle, heart, adipose tissue, etc.) BCAA metabolism is most relevant to manipulate is still an area of ongoing debate (5).More recently, perturbations in ketone metabolism have also been shown to contribute to obesityassociated cardiometabolic diseases (6,7). One of the most intriguing questions within this realm pertains to whether pharmacological augmentation of hepatic ketogenesis can alleviate MASLD (8), as increased ketogenesis would result in an elevation of fatty acid oxidation and subsequent decrease in hepatic lipid accumulation. This is a highly relevant area for current drug discovery, since MASLD is a major cause for abnormal liver function tests and is a pathology that currently has no approved therapies. Of interest, it is also gaining recognition that energy metabolism within oxidative organs is not the only area for potential drug discovery, as the field of immunometabolism is one of the most rapidly expanding areas in obesity. This is due in part to increased adiposity often leading to a chronic low-grade inflammation that can contribute to T2D and CVD (9). Whether perturbations in macrophage energy metabolism directly contribute to the chronic low-grade inflammation associated with obesity is unknown, and will be a key area for future interrogation that could lead to new exciting targets for drug development (10).Perturbations in energy metabolism are commonly observed in the myocardium during obesity/T2D, with several studies exploring whether targeting such perturbations can alleviate diabetic cardiomyopathy and/or heart failure (11). Targets of interest include manipulating lipoprotein lipase activity to alleviate dyslipidemia and fatty acid supply to the myocardium (12), or manipulating the enzymatic machinery within cardiomyocytes to limit the accumulation of toxic lipids such as ceramides and diacylglycerols, thereby attenuating cardiac lipotoxicity (13). One of the most robust metabolic perturbations in the myocardium during obesity/T2D is an impairment in glucose oxidation, with several studies illustrating that inhibition of the transcription factor, forkhead box O1, can restore glucose oxidation in the diabetic heart (14). There is also significant interest in understanding how acetylation of the enzymatic machinery controlling mitochondrial boxidation contributes to the elevations in myocardial fatty acid oxidation rates observed in obesity/T2D (15). This special issue of the Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences features several topical review articles addressing these exciting areas of energy metabolism and how they have contributed to the potential development of new drugs for treating obesity-related cardiometabolic diseases. While targeting energy metabolism may prove fruitful towards alleviating MASLD, T2D, and/or CVD associated with obesity, there is also much excitement with the use of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonists to directly treat obesity via decreasing appetite. Indeed, the significant weight loss resulting from GLP-1R agonist therapy has been shown to have salutary actions against cardiometabolic disease. As such, this special issue also addresses the expanding role of GLP-1R agonists to treat obesity, while contrasting the efficacy of these agents against that of bariatric surgery (16). Furthermore, the prevalence of obesity is increasing in our adolescent population, and thus the potential pharmacotherapy of adolescent obesity will also be discussed (17). Taken together, an advanced understanding of the metabolic perturbations associated with obesity has the potential to provide several new drug targets for treating cardiometabolic diseases such as MASLD, T2D and CVD, while improving the quality of life for millions of individuals.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.003
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.012
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Not applicable · Consensus signal: Not applicable
GenreCandidate signal: Editorial · Consensus signal: Editorial
Teacher disagreement score0.021
Threshold uncertainty score0.070

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0030.012
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0040.001
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0030.003
Bibliometrics0.0020.001
Science and technology studies0.0020.002
Scholarly communication0.0050.004
Open science0.0040.001
Research integrity0.0120.017
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0210.015

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.036
GPT teacher head0.416
Teacher spread0.380 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designNot applicable
Domainnot available
GenreEditorial

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations0
Published2025
Admission routes3
Has abstractyes

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