Invited Talk ESA-SRB-ANZOS 2025 in conjunction with ENSA

Targeting energy expenditure with the mitochondrial uncoupler BAM15: effects on exercise performance and metabolic function in mice (130946)

Brenna Osborne 1 , Calum S Vancuylenberg 1 , Cleopatra Kopanidis 1 , Ellen M Olzomer 1 , Mingyan Zhou 1 , Riya Shrestha 1 , Martina Beretta 1 , Kate GR Quinlan 1 , Andrew Philp 2 , Vitor A Lira 3 , Webster L Santos 4 5 , Kyle L Hoehn 1 5
  1. School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  2. Centenary Institute, Camperdown, NSW, Australia
  3. Department of Health and Human Physiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
  4. Department of Chemistry and Virginia Tech Centre for Drug Discovery, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA
  5. Uncoupler Biosciences, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Losing 5-25% body weight can decrease onset and mortality from diseases including type-2-diabetes. Current obesity treatments focus on reducing calorie-intake through diet, surgery or drugs; however, these approaches are often ineffective long-term or have significant side effects. More than 65% of Australian adults remain overweight or obese, underscoring the need for new approaches. Exercise is a cornerstone weight loss strategy; however, few patients can achieve long-lasting weight loss with exercise alone. Mitochondrial uncoupling is an alternative mechanism to increase energy expenditure through decreasing caloric efficiency at the inner mitochondrial membrane. In this talk I will discuss efforts to target energy expenditure with uncouplers, and our studies investigating if the metabolic and weight loss benefits of exercise can be enhanced by combination treatment with BAM15, a mitochondria-selective mitochondrial uncoupler.