After genetically altering mice so they stopped producing a certain enzyme, Salih Wakil, a biochemist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, found the mutant mice weighed up to 15 percent less than normal mice and carried up to 50 percent less fat. They can sit on the couch and eat fries and not worry about putting on a paunch.
Scientists say caution is in order since the experiment was performed only once and only in mice.
But whether this can lead to a safe and effective drugs we can't yet know. This enzyme is produced by one of two other enzymes, either ACC1 or ACC2. Wakil's team found the enzyme produced by ACC1 is critical for forming fatty acids. These fatty acids, Wakil found, are needed during development since mice engineered without the ACC1 enzyme died within weeks. But the enzyme produced by ACC2 does not appear to be critical.