A compound known scientifically as SR9009, while not FDA-approved, is marketed as having a wide range of health benefits, including reduced risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Until now, researchers have attributed these benefits to the compound’s role in altering the body’s circadian clock.
In a new study led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine and published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, this assumption has been challenged. The findings suggest that SR9009 can affect cell growth and metabolic function without involving a set of proteins associated with circadian rhythm.
“These findings have important implications because some of the previous studies concluded it was the circadian clock that was effecting metabolism or cell growth, through these compounds, and producing the benefits related to diabetes, obesity, and cancer,” says the study’s senior author Mitchell Lazar, director of the Institute of Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. “That needs to be reconsidered, as our study shows these compounds work on something other than this clock factor.”
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