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The virus that causes COVID-19 undertakes a massive takeover of the body's fat-processing system, creating cellular storehouses of fat that empower the virus to hijack the body's molecular machinery and cause disease. After scientists discovered the important role of fat for SARS-CoV-2, they used weight-loss drugs and other fat-targeting compounds to try to stop the virus in cell culture. Cut off from its fatty fuel, the virus stopped replicating within 48 hours. The team embarked on the study based on observations that people with a high body-mass index and conditions like cardiovascular disease and diabetes are more sensitive to the...

A widely publicized non-prescription diet drug named alli, which is believed to cause weight loss by blocking fat absorption, finally hit the drugstores nationwide this weekend, according to an announcement made June 12 by GlaxoSmithKline, the marketer of the diet drug. Alli, made by Roche of 60 mg orlistat, the active chemical that has been used for years for a prescription version known as xenical, obtained FDA approval in the February of 2007 for marketing in the United States as an over-the counter weight loss drug . The drug is indicated for those who are overweight, but not obese adults...

CINCINNATI -- Nicole Brown is looking for an ally in her fight to lose weight. "I want to lose weight for a lifetime and be healthy for the future," she said. She thought the new Food and Drug Administration-approved, over-the-counter drug Alli might be her answer. "I was like, 'Wow, great, there is something that the FDA actually approved that we can take', so I'm assuming it's naturally healthy," Brown said. Dr. Stephen Goldberg, who heads up Jewish Hospital's weight management program, said the drug is healthy, much more so than many of the diet drugs on the shelves today....