ArticleScience advances2025
The clinical antiprotozoal drug halofuginone promotes weight loss by elevating GDF15 and FGF21.
Article in Science advances, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Novel Endocrine Signaling Axis in Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic Syndrome: Interactions and Therapeutic Potential of FGF21 and GDF15.Journal of cellular biochemistry · 2026Review
- Weight Loss During Obesity Provokes Asparaginase-Associated Liver Steatosis and Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2026Article
- Runs of homozygosity reveal candidate genes for economic traits in Danish Large White pigs.Archives animal breeding · 2026Article
- Hepatic mitochondrial signaling as a systemic hub: inter-organ communication networks in aging and aging-related diseases.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Drug repurposing screen identifies an HRI activating compound that promotes adaptive mitochondrial remodeling in MFN2-deficient cells.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Revisiting the role of GDF15 in atherosclerosis in mouse and human.Acta pharmacologica Sinica · 2025Article
- Traditional medicine meets modern science: Halofuginone's role in combating autoimmune diseases.Journal of natural medicines · 2025Review
- Drug Repurposing Screen Identifies an HRI Activating Compound that Promotes Adaptive Mitochondrial Remodeling in MFN2-deficient Cells.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Emerging Roles of GDF15 in Metabolic and Cardiovascular Diseases.Research (Washington, D.C.) · 2025Review
- Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 Promotes Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Contractile Polarization via p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase-Promoted Serum Response Factor Phosphorylation.Research (Washington, D.C.) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
23 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Obesity is a debilitating global pandemic with a huge cost on health care due to it being a major underlying risk factor for several diseases. Therefore, there is an unmet medical need for pharmacological interventions to curb obesity. Here, we report that halofuginone, a Food and Drug Administration-approved anti-scleroderma and antiprotozoal drug, is a promising anti-obesity agent in preclinical mouse and pig models. Halofuginone suppressed food intake, increased energy expenditure, and resulted in weight loss in diet-induced obese mice while also alleviating insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis. Using molecular and pharmacological tools with transcriptomics, we identified that halofuginone increases fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) and growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) levels via activating integrated stress response. Using
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.