Plant-based microbeads made from everyday ingredients like green tea and seaweed have helped mice shed weight by trapping fats in the gut, reports a new study published in Cell Biomaterials. Researchers see these microbeads as a potential “structured, drug-free therapy” to treat obesity, with fewer side effects than the current medications.
“Seeing rats on high-fat diets lose significant weight without any signs of discomfort was also a huge moment of validation for us,” said co-author, Yue Wu, in an email to New Atlas.
Obesity is a global health challenge and the fourth leading cause of mortality, affecting over 890 million adults worldwide. The primary contributor to the obesity burden is the overconsumption of dietary fat. Currently, treatments like lifestyle change, drugs such as orlistat or semaglutide, and bariatric surgery are widely implemented. Still, they often produce only modest weight loss (typically under about 10% of initial weight) and can be limited by side effects.
The team, led by Yue Wu at Sichuan University in China, created edible, plant-based beads by blending vitamin E with green tea polyphenols, which form “stable” and “biocompatible” nanostructures that effectively bind to fat. Researchers coated the beads with alginate, a type of seaweed fiber, to protect them from the acidic environment of the stomach.
On eating them, the protective fiber coating expands in response to the less acidic environment of the intestine, allowing the beads’ interior to tether and trap fat droplets from food. This essentially prevents the fats from being absorbed by the body, and eventually, allows the captured fat to be safely excreted.
To test the effectiveness of the beads, researchers fed mice either a normal diet, a high-fat diet without microbeads, or a high-fat diet with daily microbeads. Rats on the high-fat diet with microbeads lost over 17% of their body weight, unlike those in the other groups. They also had less adipose tissue and less liver damage. The fecal tests revealed that these rats excreted more undigested fat in their waste, with no signs of gut discomfort.
“We have created edible, plant-based beads that act a bit like 'fat magnets’ in your digestive tract, all without using drugs or changing how your body works chemically,” Wu told New Atlas.
Wu envisions the potential of these beads as both supplement and structured treatment. For general wellness, they could be developed into a food-grade supplement taken with meals – like a “fat shield.” Meanwhile, for people with obesity or fatty liver, Wu suggests they may offer a structured, drug-free therapy with fewer side effects than current medications.
Wu and her team have started working with a biotech company and a top-ranked hospital in China to translate this treatment from lab to clinic. A clinical trial with 26 participants is already underway.
The study has been published in Cell Biomaterials.
