WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- A small molecule earlier found to have both anti-fat and anti-cancer abilities works as a literal turnoff for fat-making genes, new findings published in the journal Chemistry and Biology reveal.

    The chemical "fatostatin" blocks a well-known master controller of fat synthesis, a transcription factor known as SREBP, researchers from Japan's Kyoto University and Baylor College of Medicine in the United States discovered.

    Obese mice injected with fatostatin showed noticeable reductions in their weight despite little difference in their eating habits, the researchers reported.

    After four weeks of treatment, the animals weighed 12 percent less and had 70 percent lower blood sugar levels. Their cholesterol levels were also down.

    "We are frankly very excited about it," Salih Wakil of Baylor College of Medicine said. "It goes to the origin of (fat synthesis) -- all the way back to gene expression."

    Unlike cholesterol-lowering statins in use today, which block a single enzyme in the pathway, the chemical "hits fat from the very beginning."

    In doing so, fatostatin influences many of the genes involved in fat production and various aspects of metabolic syndrome -- a collection of risk factors including obesity, high cholesterol and insulin resistance.

    Studies in cell culture showed that fatostatin significantly lowered the activity of 63 genes, including 34 directly associated with fatty acid or cholesterol synthesis. Many of those were known to be under the control of SREBP.

    According to the researchers, fatostatin was not the first molecule to act on SREBP, but it appeared to do so in a somewhat different way than those described previously. More research is needed, but researchers are optimistic that fatostatin could prove to be clinically useful in treating obesity, and perhaps cardiovascular disease and diabetes as well.