Evaluation of 3-V Bioscience-2640 to Reduce de Novo Lipogenesis in Subjects With Characteristics of Metabolic Syndrome

The drug 3-V Bioscience-2640 has been tested previously in subjects with cancer because the lipogenesis pathway is important to the control of some cancer progression. Palmitate (C16:0), a saturated, 16-carbon fatty acid is a biomarker of lipogenesis present in blood triglyceride (TG), was found to be reduced significantly. A second biomarker of lipogenesis, malonyl carnitine, was significantly increased in patients as expected. The present study will test a lower dose (50 mg/d) than the maximum dose previously administered. Here, the subjects will be men with characteristics of the metabolic syndrome, who are otherwise healthy. The focus on subjects with metabolic syndrome is based on the fact that the future use of the drug will be in patients with NAFLD who will likely have metabolic syndrome characteristics. In humans, the primary organ that synthesizes fatty acids is the liver, and this process occurs when simple sugars are consumed in the diet. The carbons in the sugars clear to the liver and become the molecule acetyl-Coenzyme A, which is the building block of fatty acids. The Laboratory of Elizabeth Parks, co-investigator, has developed an oral sugars tolerance test (OSTT) to determine the magnitude of liver stimulation of fatty acid synthesis when an individual consumes an oral bolus of sugars. This test involves the subject undergoing IV infusion with the stable (non-radioactive) isotope (13C1-acetate). The isotope gets incorporated into fatty acids that are being synthesized during the course of the infusion and when sugars stimulate lipogenesis, the label is more abundance. Those labeled fatty acids are detected as present in the blood very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) component. In the present study, the investigators will use this protocol to determine whether 10 days of drug treatment (one dose per day) will significantly reduce fasting and fructose-stimulated lipogenesis. The study is divided into 3 parts which will support the plan for minor adjustments in the dose of drug after the results from the first two research subjects are available in order to optimize the suppression of lipogenesis, while also minimizing any side effects the drug might have. The study is a repeated-measures design, with each subject serving as his own control. The study will be unblinded with respect to the research staff working directly with the subjects. However, laboratory personnel who will be running the biochemical analyses will be blinded as to whether they are analyzing baseline or post-treatment samples.