Sydney - The pills people take to reduce blood pressure could be adapted to help those who need to lose weight, Australian researchers said Tuesday.

At the Howard Florey Institute in Melbourne, Michael Mathai and his team re-engineered mice to knock out the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) that constricts blood vessels and so raises blood pressure.

Pills that reduce blood pressure inhibit ACE.

The treated mice ate as much as those still with the ACE enzyme, but had half the fat and weighed about 20 per cent less.

"It's possible the drugs could be adapted to become specific weight-loss drugs - it may be a question of the correct dosage," Mathai told The Sydney Morning Herald.

The treated mice were no more active than those in the control group, meaning their weight loss came from a higher metabolic rate. This higher rate was sustained throughout their life, the Melbourne researchers found.
They also cleared sugars faster than the untreated mice, suggesting that they were less likely to develop diabetes.

"There is already a fair amount of interest in investigating the use of these drugs in the prevention of diabetes," he said. (dpa)