A drug to treat malaria and obesity?

ST. LOUIS, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- A malaria drug may be beneficial in treating a common obesity culprit known as metabolic syndrome, U.S. researchers said Tuesday.

A small dose of the malaria drug chloroquine seems to ease many symptoms of metabolic syndrome in mice, reducing blood pressure, decreasing hardening and narrowing of the arteries and improving blood sugar tolerance, said researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis.

The findings are published in the November issue of Cell Metabolism.

"We just received funding for a clinical trial, and we're very excited to see if the processes activated by chloroquine can effectively treat one of the most common health problems of modern industrialized society," said senior study author Clay Semenkovich, professor of medicine and of cell biology and physiology at Washington University. "We already know that chloroquine is safe and well-tolerated, and our mouse results suggest we may only need very low and perhaps infrequent doses to achieve similar effects in humans."

Relatively little is known about metabolic syndrome, a condition linked to obesity, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, low levels of good cholesterol and high blood sugar levels, the researchers said.

The team came upon the discovery during an investigation into the role of a protein known as ATM in causing the rare genetic disorder ataxia-telangiectasia. During the study, the team saw that ATM is also linked to insulin production.