The escalating prevalence of
obesity is one of the most pressing health concerns of the modern era, yet existing medicines to combat this global pandemic are disappointingly limited in terms of safety and effectiveness. The inadequacy of currently available
therapies for
obesity has made new
drug development crucial. In the past several decades, however, major progress has been achieved in understanding adipocyte
hyperplasia associated with the pathogenesis of
obesity, and consequently new potential targets for the medical treatment of
obesity have been identified. We primarily review recent progress in the regulation of adipocyte
hyperplasia as a novel emerging nontraditional approach. In this minireview, we focus on recQ-mediated
genome instability 1 (RMI1), a recently identified novel molecular target for
obesity treatment. RMI1-deficient mice have been found to be resistant to high-fat diet- and genetics-related
obesity. Expression of this
protein is regulated by
E2F transcription factors, and recent studies have suggested that RMI1 plays an important role in the control of energy homeostasis during the development of
obesity, with a mode of action based on the regulation of adipocyte
hyperplasia.